The headquarters of Grab Holdings Ltd., in Singapore. Grab Holdings Ltd., reported its latest earnings on Feb. 23, 2023.
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Singapore-based Grab Holdings is cutting over 1,000 jobs, its CEO said Tuesday, in a bid to manage costs and reorganize the company in a competitive landscape.
In an email to staff, CEO Anthony Tan said the layoffs are a “painful but necessary step” that the ride-hailing and food delivery app operator must take to remain competitive in the future.
“The primary goal of this exercise is to strategically reorganize ourselves, so that we can move faster, work smarter, and rebalance our resources across our portfolio in line with our longer term strategies,” said Tan.
This is the group’s largest round of layoffs since 2020, when it cut 360 jobs in response to Covid-19 pandemic challenges.
Even without layoffs, Tan said Grab is on track to hit breakeven this year on group adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization. In February, the company said it was bringing forward its target to the fourth quarter of 2023, half a year earlier than its previous guidance.
The CEO said the job cuts are not a “shortcut to profitability” but will enable Grab to adapt to the business environment and rapid emergence of A.I.
Tan said Grab will provide severance payment of half a month for every six months of completed service, or based on local statutory guidelines, whichever is higher. Laid off workers will also receive medical insurance coverage until the end of the year, repatriation support as well as career transition and development support, among other measures.
The announcement comes after Grab’s COO Alex Hungate told Reuters in September that the company does not expect to conduct mass layoffs despite weaker economic conditions. Hungate said Grab was “very careful and judicious about any hiring.”
Major U.S. tech firms like Amazon and Meta went on a hiring spree during the pandemic as lockdowns boosted business. Many later laid off thousands of workers as business conditions reverted to or approached pre-pandemic conditions.
Grab posted strong revenue growth and narrowed losses for 2022, citing a rebound in mobility demand.
Tuesday’s announcement is the latest round of layoffs from a major Southeast Asian tech company. In March, Indonesia’s GoTo announced it was laying off 600 employees to boost profitability, Reuters reported, while Singapore-based Sea cut more than 7,000 jobs in the last six months of 2022.
The Texas-based space company said in an updated prospectus Monday that it’s planning to sell about 16.2 million shares. The offering could raise up to $631.8 million.
Earlier this month, Firefly filed its plans to go public on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol “FLY.”
Its debut comes amid a renewed push in the space race, as billionaire-led companies such as Elon Musk‘s SpaceX funnel more money into space activities and startups try their luck at the public markets.
Space tech firm Voyager went public in June, while reusable rocket developer Innovative Rocket Technologies said it plans to debut through a $400 million special purpose acquisition company merger.
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Firefly’s public market launch also coincides with a revival in IPO activity as debilitating interest rates and an overhang from President Donald Trump‘s tariff plans begin to clear. Design software company Figma is slated to go public this week after raising its range.
Firefly makes rockets, space tugs and lunar landers, including satellite launching rockets known as Alpha. At the end of March, the company reported a sixfold jump in revenue from $8.3 million a year ago to $55.9 million.
The company also reported a net loss of about $60.1 million, up from a loss of $52.8 million a year ago, and said its backlog totaled about $1.1 billion.
Some of Firefly’s major backers include AE Industrial Partners, which led an early investing round in the company. Defense contractor Northrop Grumman invested $50 million in the startup this May, and Firefly says it has collaborated with Lockheed Martin, L3Harris and NASA.
Elena Nadolinski, founder and CEO at Iron Fish, and Dylan Field, CEO and co-founder of Figma, attend the annual Allen and Co. Sun Valley Media Conference in Sun Valley, Idaho, on July 7, 2022.
The company now expects shares to go for $30 to 32 each, up from the range of $25 to $28 that it disclosed on July 21.
The new range, announced in a regulatory filing, suggests Figma would be worth $17.6 billion to $18.8 billion on a fully diluted basis.
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That would still be below the $20 billion total that Adobe had offered when it announced plans to acquire Figma in 2022. The deal fell apart after regulators pushed back on competitive grounds.
Figma is among the most valuable privately held technology companies.
Financial technology companies Chime and Circle went public in June, and CoreWeave shares debuted in March. Circle and CoreWeave shares have since more than doubled in price.
The Huawei flagship store and the Apple flagship store at Nanjing Road Pedestrian Street in Shanghai, China, Sept. 2, 2024.
Cfoto | Future Publishing | Getty Images
Huawei reclaimed the top spot in China’s smartphone market in the second quarter of the year, while Apple returned to growth in the country — one of its most critical markets — data released by technology market analyst firm Canalys showed on Monday.
Huawei shipped 12.2 million smartphones in China in the three months ended June, a rise of 15% year on year — equating to 18% market share. It’s the first time Huawei has been the biggest player by market share in China since the first quarter of 2024, according to Canalys.
Apple, meanwhile, shipped 10.1 million smartphones in the quarter in China, up 4% year on year and ranking fifth. It is the first time Apple has recorded growth in China since the fourth quarter of 2023, Canalys said.
Shipments represent the number of devices sent to retailers. They do no equate directly to sales but are a gauge of demand.
The numbers come ahead of Apple’s quarterly earnings release this week, with investors watching the company’s performance in China, a market where the Cupertino giant has faced significant challenges, including intense competition from Huawei and other local players such as Xiaomi.
Huawei, which made a comeback at the end of 2023 after its smartphone business was crippled by U.S. sanctions, has eaten away at Apple’s share.
Apple’s return to growth in China will be a welcome sign for investors. The U.S. tech giant “strategically adjusted its pricing” for the iPhone 16 series in China, which helped it grow, Canalys said. Chinese e-commerce firms discounted Apple’s iPhone 16 models during the quarter. And Apple itself also increased trade-in prices for some iPhone models.
Meanwhile, competition in China has intensified. Huawei has aggressively launched various smartphones in the past year and has started to roll out HarmonyOS 5, its self-developed operating system, across various devices. It is a rival to Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS.
“This move is expected to accelerate the expansion of its independent ecosystem’s user base, while also placing greater demands on system compatibility and user experience,” Lucas Zhong, analyst at Canalys, said in a press release.