Coinspeaker
Amazon to Trim Its Workforce after Axing Halo Fitness Wearables
American multinational technology giant and the world’s biggest e-commerce outlet Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ: AMZN) has announced it will stop manufacturing and supporting its Halo Fitness wearables products by the end of July and will be trimming its workforce. According to an update from the firm, the cut in support for this product line will cost some of its workers their jobs, a move that appears to be a cost cutting measure.
The Halo Fitness brand was introduced in 2020 in what Amazon described as its attempt to delight its customers. The Halo wearables track health data for consumers and have occupied strong positions among the major competing wearables to many more popular wearables like those from Apple Inc (NASDAQ: AAPL) and others.
“At Amazon, we think big, experiment, and invest in new ideas like Amazon Halo in our efforts to delight customers,” the company said. “While we are proud of what we built, we recently made the difficult decision to stop supporting Amazon Halo effective July 31, 2023.”
According to Amazon, purchases made by users featuring Amazon Halo View, Amazon Halo Band, Amazon Halo Rise, and Amazon Halo accessory bands will be refunded while unused subscriptions will also be refunded to users or subscribers.
The company said users will be able to delete their health data if they want to and they will also be able to save scanned images to their respective phone’s camera roll. In a bid to make the entire deal a more productive one, Amazon is advising its Halo product users to recycle the devices.
“We encourage you to recycle your Amazon Halo device and accessories through the Amazon Recycling Program – Amazon covers the costs associated with shipping and recycling your devices and accessories,” the company said.
Amazon and the Trimmed Workforce
Amazon has continued its cost-cutting mission and the staffers working on the Halo product will be the latest in its workforce to find their exit from the firm. According to reports, Chief Executive Officer Andy Jason has been exploring different avenues to reduce the company’s operational costs in order to place it on a more profitable path.
Amazon said that for the employees who will be affected by the layoffs, it will be “providing packages that include a separation payment, transitional health insurance benefits, and external job placement support.”
The layoff has taken effect in the United States and Canada but the company said it may take much longer for it to communicate with affected staff in other jurisdictions as it is still negotiating with different unions.
American tech firms have been hard hit by the global economic mishap with revenue and share price plunging by the day, while Amazon has conducted a series of layoffs in the past, it is not alone in this regard as its top rivals including Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT) and Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ: META) have also made related moves.
Amazon to Trim Its Workforce after Axing Halo Fitness Wearables
