Jennifer Maas and Brent Lang of Variety exclusively report that Netflix Begins Second Round of Layoffs, 300 Positions Cut.

A Netflix spokesperson told Variety: “Today we sadly let go of around 300 employees. 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.”

Jennfier and Brent write:

“Netflix has lost close to 70% of its value since it announced it was down by 200,000 subscribers at the end of Q1, and expected to lose another 2 million subs in Q2. On Thursday, Netflix’s stock opened at $180.08 per share and was trading at $180.93 just after 11 a.m. ET. Shares of Netflix were trading at north of $600 in January. In its most recent earnings, Netflix committed to cutting costs in order to keep its margins at 20%. The streamer still plans to spend aggressively on content with a budget of $17 billion in 2022 for shows and films. That’s roughly in line with what it shelled out in 2021.”

My take: as digital content streaming matures, Netflix is facing how to evolve into a sustainable business because their model has always relied on ever-growing subscriber numbers. Having witnessed the price double in ten years, my advice to Netflix is to tread very carefully because cracking down on passwords and inserting ads may be the proverbial straw that breaks their subscribers’ backs.