- Amazon.Com, Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN) devices chief expressed commitment to building the Alexa ecosystem despite job cuts.
- When Amazon initiated its landmark layoffs, the Devices and Services group responsible for the Alexa voice-activated assistant, Echo smart speakers, Fire streaming devices, and home robots was the hardest hit, Bloomberg reports.
- Senior Vice President Dave Limp, in an interview, cited continued big bets on Alexa, Zoox self-driving taxis, and Kuiper internet satellites as evidence supporting CEO Andy Jassy’s willingness to invest billions on projects that might not pay off for years.
- Jassy reportedly inspected and spent time with the aforesaid big bets.
- Job cuts in Limp’s division affected well under 2,000 people, he said, spread about evenly between groups working on the Alexa voice assistant and other teams.
- The group still employed tens of thousands of people, Limp said, with about 10,000 working specifically on Alexa-related projects.
- Amazon also wound down teams working on Alexa-related telehealth services, original games, and unreleased projects.
- Amazon expanded the Alexa team rapidly to fulfill founder Jeff Bezos’s desire to re-create the Star Trek talking computer and get there faster than Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL) and Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL).
- Limp insisted that engagement with Alexa grew and with an all-time high software engagement. But he admitted that the devices group is still not profitable.
- Becoming profitable will require persuading customers who use the hardware to pay for such services as online shopping, music, or audiobooks, Limp said.
- “I think the momentum of monetization of Alexa is on the right track,” he said.
- Price Action: AMZN shares traded lower by 0.56% at $91.97 on the last check Wednesday.
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