Zwift lays off senior staff, says it’s a strategic restructure
As recently reported by digital tech website DC Rainmaker, late last week Zwift laid-off a number of senior employees in what’s said to be a strategic move to focus on core business and develop new hardware.
According to DC Rainmaker, many of the eliminated positions were of a senior level, including the VP of Running, Director of Global Business Development, Partnerships Director of Esports, and VP of Digital Commerce. Since the news on Friday, our reporting suggests that these “strategic reoganization” lay-offs likely impact more than 25 personnel.
“Zwift has implemented difficult, but important changes to reorganize the business. These are strategic changes that have been made to better support the continued growth and development of the core subscription business and to allow us to develop new hardware. These are not decisions resulting from external circumstances. Zwift remains healthy as a business and we firmly believe these changes will result in a better product for our Zwift community,” reads the company statement posted on dcrainmaker.com.
Strange timing
Zwift has stated that the strategic reorganisation has been in the works for some time and that it has nothing to do with the current pandemic. The timing is odd, however, given the extreme uncertain times that lay ahead and the fact that Zwift’s user base is surely spiking at the present.
They also stated that the reognization is to designed enable the company to focus on growing the existing subscription business and to develop new hardware. That hardware part of that is quite interesting. It’s a reminder of the previously known fact that Zwift is making a play to become a more integrated training system.
Some large questions remain. How far away is Zwift’s entry into the hardware market? Will it get there through acquisition? Is Zwift still as dedicated to e-sports as they were prior to these layoffs? Sources within Zwift have stated that the company wants to see esports in the Olympics by 2028.
At least for now, Zwift is saying they’re in a good place and that these changes will lead to a better product. Either way, our thoughts go out to the staff and families of those affected.
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