Roku To Reduce Office Footprint, Lay Off 10% Of Employees
Roku on Wednesday announced new cuts to its office portfolio and workforce, the third time it has enacted cost-saving measures in the last year.
The San Jose, California-based streaming technology company plans to cut 10% of its 3,600-person employee base and plans to consolidate its office footprint, the company said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Roku didn't disclose how much of its office real estate it plans to vacate, but it estimated it would lose between $160M and $200M in impairment charges related to ceasing operations at certain office facilities.
The company leases about 1.3M SF across 14 locations in the U.S., according to CoStar data.
The cuts are part of Roku's initiative to reduce operating expenses that started late last year as the company reported quarterly losses, according to its Nov. 17 SEC filing.
Roku reported a net loss of $302M through the first six months of this year, up from its $139M loss in the first half of last year, according to its latest earnings report.
The company said in November it would be laying off 7% of its workforce, approximately 200 employees. In March, it announced cuts to another 200 roles. Those cuts also came with a reduction to its office space — the company said it would exit and sublease space that it didn't occupy at the time.
Roku put one of its four headquarters buildings in San Jose, totaling 163K SF, on the sublease market, The Real Deal reported in May.
In New York City, Bisnow reported in March that Roku put a quarter of a 240K SF office it leased last year on the sublease market.
“[Roku] obviously had plans to grow into that space,” Savills Vice Chairman for New York Nicholas Farmakis told Bisnow.
“Nobody ever leases a space and occupies it 100% on Day One, but I don't think they were expecting to sublease a portion of that space to then grow into it. ... Putting 60K SF back on the market, I think, is probably a really good indication of what tenants have been thinking.”
