Unity will lay off 265 employees and close almost half of its offices
Unity has announced new large-scale cuts. This time, the reason was the termination of cooperation with Weta FX, the special effects studio directed by Peter Jackson. A total of 256 people or 3.8% of the total number of Unity employees will be out of work.
Unity announced the changes in a report to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (Reuters drew attention to it). The companies have been cooperating since 2021 - they began working together after Unity bought Weta Digital's VFX tools development division from Weta FX for $1.62 billion. All the terms on which they part are not disclosed. But it is known that Unity "has made changes to the agreements related to the rights to individual IP".
Unity has also decided to close offices in 14 cities, including Berlin and Singapore. According to the information on the company's website, it now has 39 offices in 35 cities. Thus, offices will stop working in slightly less than half of the locations. It should be noted that Unity is not the first time in 2023 that it massively closes the doors of its branches: back in May, it had 58 offices.
At the same time, Unity will significantly reduce office space in other cities.
Employees who are currently working in offices preparing for closure will be able to switch to remote work if their duties allow them to do so. Employees from other offices will be allowed to work from home more often.
Over the past two years, Unity has been regularly cutting staff. In June 2022, she fired at least 200 people, in January 2023 - 284 people, and in May 2023 — about 600 more people.
Unity warned of a new round of layoffs and possible office closures in early November as part of its financial report for the third quarter of 2023. The company said it plans to analyze its product portfolio and then focus on "the most valuable projects for customers." According to Unity, this will allow it to reduce costs and increase efficiency.
In a comment to Reuters, James M. Whitehurst, interim CEO of Unity, said that the company is preparing for new changes in its work. She will reduce the number of projects she is working on. But I haven't made any final decisions.
