#Roku to Lay Off 10 Percent of Staff, Take Charge of $55M-$65M for Removing Streaming Content

Roku is laying off another 10 percent of its staff and taking charges for additional restructuring moves, the company unveiled in a regulatory filing on Wednesday.

It cited a “continuing evaluation of its operations” that led it to determine “to implement additional measures to continue to bring down its year-over-year operating expense growth rate by consolidating its office space utilization, performing a strategic review of its content portfolio, reducing outside services expenses, and slowing its year-over-year headcount expense growth rate through a workforce reduction and limiting new hires, among other measures.”

The workforce reduction is expected to impact approximately 10 percent of the company’s employees, Roku said. It also expects to record a restructuring charge related to the workforce reduction, primarily consisting of severance and benefits costs, in a preliminary estimated range of $45 million to $65 million. This range excludes charges related to the potential impairment of office facilities and content, which are described in Item 2.06 below. The company expects that the majority of the restructuring charge will be incurred in the third quarter of fiscal 2023. The company further anticipates that the implementation of the workforce reduction, including cash payments, will be substantially complete by the end of the fourth quarter of fiscal 2023.

“In connection with the above-described measures, in the third quarter of fiscal 2023 the company expects to record an impairment charge in a preliminary estimated range of $160 million to $200 million related to ceasing to use certain office facilities and an impairment charge in a preliminary estimated range of $55 million to $65 million related to removing select existing licensed and produced content from company-operated services on its TV streaming platform,” the filing said.