Amazon Reviews Unprofitable Business Units : Report

(RTTNews) - Amazon.com Inc is reviewing unprofitable business units as part of a sweeping effort to cut costs at the company, the Wall Street Journal reported citing people familiar with the matter.

The review comes a week after Amazon announced it was freezing corporate hiring for the next few months due to an "unusual macro-economic environment."

Amazon's Internal documents show that in some recent years the company's devices unit, which includes Alexa, had an operating loss of more than $5 billion a year, the Journal reported on Thursday.

According to the report, Amazon is currently considering whether it should focus on trying to add new capabilities to Alexa, a voice assistant available on a variety of Amazon devices. Adding capabilities would require greater investment, and many customers use Alexa for only a few functions.

Amazon has reportedly told employees in certain other unprofitable divisions to look for jobs elsewhere in the company because the teams they were working on were being suspended or closed.

Amazon has begun shutting down some projects, including two robotics experiments, a virtual travel experience, a video device for kids and personal delivery robots, the report said.

Amazon reportedly ended its Treasure Truck program, a fleet of roving vans that offered daily discounts on an ever-changing list of items, and is planning to end its health care venture, Amazon Care, at the end of the year.

Meanwhile, Facebook parent Meta Platforms decided to lay off more than 11,000 employees, representing about 13 percent of its global workforce, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said on Wednesday. The reductions are across both Family of Apps and Reality Labs segments. Other tech giants including Alphabet have also paused hiring.