The news Thursday comes after Deadline revealed in May that redundancies were underway, with an initial 150 positions eliminated as a result of the slowdown in the company’s revenue growth.“Today we sadly let go of around 300 employees,” a Netflix spokeswoman told Deadline. “While we continue to invest significantly in the business, we made these adjustments so that our costs are growing in line with our slower revenue growth. We are so grateful for everything they have done for Netflix and are working hard to support them through this difficult transition.”We’re hearing that the cuts are impacting a number of different teams, mostly in the U.S. but also including Asia Pacific, Europe, Middle East and Africa and Latin America including the company’s legal and product divisions.Netflix has a global workforce of around 11,000.The latest layoffs come after Netflix lost 200,000 subscribers during its first quarter. It started making staff cuts in April with a number of staffers laid off at its fan site Tudum, before cutting roles in its U.S. content teams.In May, a number of those laid off were in the executive ranks including in original content, with a couple of director-level original series execs set to leave including Sebastian Gibbs and Penelope Essoyan in Drama Series, Negin Salmasi in Spectacle and Event TV, as well as Nathan Kitada, Fidan Manashirova and the Family Films team of Naketha Mattocks, Brad Butler, Alison Haskovec and Caroline Mak.Netflix’s stock has fallen sharply after the streamer reported its global subscriber base decline – its first drop in more than a decade. Wall Street also had expected more from the streaming giant in terms of revenue, with a consensus among analysts calling for $7.93 billion. Netflix reported $7.868 billion in revenue in Q1, up less than 10% from a year ago.However, investors didn’t immediately react to the news today. Netflix shares entered the back half of the trading day down a fraction. They have risen from their 52-week low but they have lost more than two thirds of their value over the past few months.The company is about a month away from its next major crossroads. It will report quarterly results in late July and has already signaled a possible loss of 2 million subscribers. With subscriber momentum slowing, more scrutiny has been applied to the company’s efforts to rein in costs. Despite the job cuts, spending on content is still expected to approach $20 billion this year, with no plans to slash that figure.The streamer has been stressing that despite the cuts, it needs a “back to basics” response to the tricky past few months. Head of Global TV Bela Bajaria, speaking at the recent Banff World Media Festival, shrugged off the need for a “radical change in our business” given the rocky period of lower-than-expected sub growth that has led to questions around the company’s model.Co-CEO Ted Sarandos addressed the stock hit earlier today at the Cannes Lions event in France, saying it was inevitable in the development of a still relatively new industry.“We’ve gotten through experiences where the market disconnects from core business and you have to prove the thesis still works, and is going to work long term,” he said. “There’s a lot of uncertainty in the world today, and if they get anything that rocks the foundation of the narrative, they get nervous.”
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