PayPal lays off 2,500 workers one week after CEO announces 'new chapter'
PayPal is slashing 9% of its workforce — about 2,500 jobs.
The CEO said cuts will "right-size our business." PayPal's stock has slid more than 20% in a year.
Last week, CEO Alex Chriss said the payment company would launch new products using AI.
PayPal joined the ranks of companies saying they'll cut jobs this January.
The payment company's CEO Alex Chriss told staff on Tuesday that another 9% of the workforce — about 2,500 positions — will be slashed. The news comes after PayPal said it would reduce its headcount by about 2,000 in January last year.
"We are doing this to right-size our business, allowing us to move with the speed needed to deliver for our customers and drive profitable growth," Chriss wrote in a memo. "At the same time, we will continue to invest in areas of the business we believe will create and accelerate growth."
The cuts will come from current positions as well as scrapping open and future job listings in 2024, Chriss said. The stock has dropped more than 20% in the last year.
Chriss — a former exec at finance firm Intuit — was named President and CEO in September 2023. Last week, in his first major announcement, he unveiled plans to launch a series of tools using AI intended to "revolutionize commerce."
The AI-powered products include "smart receipts" that will use AI to send personalized recommendations to customers in their email receipts. Chriss described the new products as part of a "new chapter" for PayPal.
"The data that we have and our ability to actually see what people have bought and know what merchants are trying to target, that's where I think AI is the huge opportunity for us," Chriss told Reuters in an interview.
PayPal is just one of a slew of companies that said it'll cut jobs in 2024, from Amazon to Google to UPS.
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