Sonos fires 200 employees

Sonos is cutting 200 jobs. This was announced by interim CEO Tom Conrad in an email published by the company. Affected employees will be informed by email that they will lose their jobs.

The job cuts are part of a restructuring program designed to make the US company more efficient, writes Conrad. The aim is to make the teams “flatter, smaller and more focused”. “I have observed first-hand that we have become entangled in too many layers that make collaboration and decision-making more difficult than it needs to be.”

Conrad was appointed as temporary Sonos CEO following the resignation of Patrick Spence. The former Apple and Snapchat manager previously served on the audio specialist's supervisory board. He now apparently has the task of initiating a change at Sonos. It is already known that two high-ranking managers are also vacating their posts.

App launch went wrong

Much of the unrest at Sonos can be traced back to the unsuccessful launch of the new Sonos app last May. Sonos had developed a completely new app from scratch, which disappointed users with its lack of features and bugs. Meanwhile, the old app was scrapped.

For months, Sonos attempted to make amends: this initially took the form of a forum Q&A session, in which some Sonos employees answered critical questions from the community and promised improvements. It quickly became clear that even this would not be enough to calm the waters. Even statements from Sonos boss Patrick Spence himself did nothing to ease the turmoil.

In the midst of the turmoil, Sonos is working on a new product category: the company wants to launch its streaming player on the market, which will reportedly cost between 200 and 400 US dollars.

(dahe)