Zoom CEO announces job cuts, says he's slashing his own salary 98%

In a message to employees that has also been posted online, Zoom CEO and founder Eric Yuan said that the company is cutting about 1,300 workers and that he is slashing his own salary.

"We have made the tough but necessary decision to reduce our team by approximately 15% and say goodbye to around 1,300 hardworking, talented colleagues," Yuan wrote. He also noted, "I am reducing my salary for the coming fiscal year by 98% and foregoing my FY23 corporate bonus. Members of my executive leadership team will reduce their base salaries by 20% for the coming fiscal year while also forfeiting their FY23 corporate bonuses."

"Our trajectory was forever changed during the pandemic when the world faced one of its toughest challenges, and I am proud of the way we mobilized as a company to keep people connected. To make this possible, we needed to staff up rapidly to support the quick rise of users on our platform and their evolving needs. Within 24 months, Zoom grew 3x in size to manage this demand while enabling continued innovation," he wrote. "We didn't take as much time as we should have to thoroughly analyze our teams or assess if we were growing sustainably, toward the highest priorities."

Yuan said that "the uncertainty of the global economy, and its effect on our customers, means we need to take a hard – yet important – look inward to reset ourselves so we can weather the economic environment, deliver for our customers and achieve Zoom's long-term vision."

The news comes as other major companies have also been announcing job cuts.

Last month, Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai announced job cuts. "We've decided to reduce our workforce by approximately 12,000 roles," he wrote in a note to Google employees. "They cut across Alphabet, product areas, functions, levels and regions."

Microsoft chairman and CEO Satya Nadella has also announced plans to slash jobs, noting a message to employees last month that "we are making changes that will result in the reduction of our overall workforce by 10,000 jobs through the end of FY23 Q3," which "represents less than 5 percent of our total employee base."

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