SF gaming giant lays off 1,800 workers, a fourth of staff

San Francisco-based Unity Software is laying off 1,800 employees, the tech giant revealed in a Monday filing with the Securities and Exchange commission.

The cuts, affecting approximately 25% of employees, are part of a “company reset” Unity first outlined in November, public relations director Kelly Ekins told SFGATE. At the time, interim CEO Jim Whitehurst told shareholders in a letter that the company, which makes popular tools for developing video games, aimed to become “leaner, more agile, and faster growing.” 

Unity also laid off 1,100 workers from June 2022 to May 2023 under former CEO John Riccitiello, who retired amid customer backlash in October. Even after the multiple layoff rounds, Whitehurst, who took over from Riccitiello, used the November shareholder letter to describe the company as bloated.

“We are currently doing too much, we are not achieving the synergies that exist across our portfolio, and we are not executing to our full potential,” he wrote. He also wrote that in his brief time at the company he’d been impressed by Unity’s workers, calling them “some of the brightest and most passionate in tech.” 

Then, in late November, Unity announced it would d be ending its contract with Peter Jackson-founded Weta FX, leaving 265 employees out of work, according to Reuters. The company also committed to a plan to shutter about 14 corporate offices. 

Unity did not respond to SFGATE’s questions about the specifics of the new layoffs, but Reuters reported the cuts would hit “all teams, regions and areas of the business.” The software company had 7,703 full-time employees at the end of 2022, according to a February filing with the SEC, with 59% in technical roles and 73% located outside the United States.

The company’s stock jumped more than 4% in after-hours trading Monday.

Hear of anything happening at Unity Software or another tech company? Contact tech reporter Stephen Council securely at [email protected] or on Signal at 628-204-5452.