FEBRUARY 18, 2025— 200 EMPLOYEES
The company announced it is cutting 12% of its workforce, approximately 200 jobs, in a restructuring initiative following financial losses and claimed mismanagement.
From interim CEO Tom Conrad…
As I just shared with you on our call, I’ve made the very difficult decision to eliminate about 200 positions at our company.
In the interest of minimizing uncertainty for everyone as quickly as possible, if your job has been eliminated, you’ll soon receive an email describing your transition and severance package along with the option to schedule a 1:1 meeting with our People team. Everyone else will receive an email confirming that your job has not been affected.
To those we're saying goodbye to today, I want to thank you for your contributions to Sonos. There’s no way around the fact that this is a terrible outcome. The company and I are committed to doing everything we can to support you in the coming days, weeks and months.
Understanding it was likely hard to take in much else during the call, I’m going to re-share what I said about how and why we are doing this.
I know that everyone here cares deeply about Sonos and the experiences we build for our customers – and I know that you want us to get back on track after a tough year. You’ve also told me that we’re struggling to make all the progress we want.
One thing I’ve observed first hand is that we’ve become mired in too many layers that have made collaboration and decision-making harder than it needs to be. So across the company today we are reorganizing into flatter, smaller, and more focused teams.
Most significantly, we are reorganizing our Product organization into functional groups for Hardware, Software, Design, Quality and Operations, and away from dedicated business units devoted to individual product categories. With this simpler organization in place, cross-functional project teams will come together to improve our core experience and deliver new products. Being smaller and more focused will require us to do a much better job of prioritizing our work — lately we’ve let too many projects run under a cloud of half-commitment. We’re going to fix this too.
AUGUST 15, 2024 — ANOTHER 100 EMPLOYEES
The company has laid off approximately 100 employees, including teams in marketing, product and engineering, platform and infrastructure, and software quality as they wind down some of the company’s customer support offices, including one in Amsterdam that will close later this year.
CEO Patrick Spence noted, “We made the difficult decision to say goodbye to approximately 100 team members representing 6 percent of the company. This action was a difficult but necessary measure to ensure continued, meaningful investment in Sonos’ product roadmap while setting Sonos up for long-term success. Our continued commitment to the app recovery and delighting our customers remains our priority and we are confident that today’s actions will not impact our ability to deliver on that promise.”
JUNE 18, 2023 — 130 EMPLOYEES GONE
The company has announced a reduction in force, impacting approximately 7% of its employees, or 130 employees.
The Company also committed to further reducing its real estate footprint and re-evaluating certain program spend. The foregoing actions reflect the Company’s commitment to rightsizing its cost base while still investing in its product roadmap to drive future growth.
Sonos CEO Patrick Spence noted, “In the face of continued headwinds we have had to make some hard choices, including eliminating some positions and reevaluating program spend.”
The company had previously cut headcount by 12% in 2020, in response to the rapidly unfolding Covid pandemic.
MAY 23, 2018 — Original post…
Sonos, Inc., the wireless device maker based in Santa Barbara, California, appears to be trimming its expenses, by laying off 96 employees, possibly in preparation for an upcoming summer IPO (Initial Public Offering). It is known that Sonos has filed a confidential IPO document with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Sonos excuses the layoffs with the standard corporate speak via company spokesperson Laura Morarity, “Like any healthy business, we occasionally make adjustments to the size and structure of our teams to stay nimble and align resources with market opportunities. Sonos is growing and profitable.”
Sonos is facing increasing competition from companies building wireless connectivity into their products, and the public offering may represent an opportune time for investors to execute a profitable exit strategy.
Change is coming. There will always be a tomorrow, no matter how much you may try to ignore it. There are no guarantees in life or promises for a bright future. We see good people being laid off through no fault of their own. Just because something bad hasn't happened yet, doesn't mean it won't. It can happen to anyone, anytime, anywhere. No one is guaranteed to wake up tomorrow and still have a job by evening. Are you now wondering, Am I Next?
