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Amazon is pausing construction of its second headquarters in Virginia following the biggest round of layoffs in the company’s history and its shifting plans around remote work.
The Seattle-based company is delaying the beginning of construction of PenPlace, the second phase of its headquarters development in northern Virginia, Amazon’s real estate chief John Schoettler said in a statement. He said the company has already hired more than 8,000 employees and will welcome them to the Met Park campus, the first phase of development, when it opens this June.
“We’re always evaluating space plans to make sure they fit our business needs and to create a great experience for employees, and since Met Park will have space to accommodate more than 14,000 employees, we’ve decided to shift the groundbreaking of PenPlace (the second phase of HQ2) out a bit,” Schoettler said.
Schoettler also emphasized the company remains “committed to Arlington” and the local region, which Amazon picked – along with New York City – to be the site of its new headquarters, known as HQ2, several years ago. More than 230 municipalities had initially competed to house the projects. New York won the competition by promising nearly $3 billion in tax breaks and grants, among other benefits, but opposition from local politicians, labor leaders and progressive activists led Amazon to scrap its plans there.
In February 2021, Amazon said it would build an eye-catching, 350-foot Helix tower to anchor the second phase of its redevelopment plans in Arlington. The new office towers were expected to welcome more than 25,000 workers when complete. Amazon spokesperson Zach Goldsztejn said those plans haven’t changed and the construction pause is not a result – or indicative of – the company’s latest job cuts, which affected 18,000 corporate employees.
The layoffs were part of a broader cost-cutting move to trim down Amazon’s growing workforce amid more sluggish sales and fears of a potential recession. Meta, Salesforce and other tech companies — many of which had gone on hiring binges in the past few years — have also been doing the same.
Amid the job cuts, Amazon has urged its employees to come back to the office. Last month, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said the company would require corporate employees to return to the office at least three days a week, a shift from the prior policy that allowed leaders to make the call on how their teams worked. The change, which will be effective on May 1, has ignited some pushback from employees who say they prefer to work remotely.
Goldsztejn said the company is expecting to move forward with what he called pre-construction work on the construction in Virginia later this year, including applying for permits. He said final timing for the second phase of the project is still being determined.
When Virginia won the competition to land HQ2, it did so less with direct incentives, and more with promises to invest in the regional workforce, particularly a graduate campus of Virginia Tech that is currently under construction just a couple of miles from Amazon’s under-construction campus in Crystal City.
Still, there were significant direct incentives. The state promised $22,000 for each new Amazon job on the condition that the average worker salary for those new jobs is $150,000, annually. But those incentives — about $550 million for 25,000 projected jobs — are not supposed to be paid out until 2024 at the earliest. Goldsztejn, the Amazon spokesperson, said the company “has not received any incentives to date related to the construction of HQ2 and the 8,000 jobs that we’ve created in Arlington since 2018.”
Arlington County also promised Amazon a cut of its hotel-tax revenue on the theory that hotel occupancies would increase significantly once Amazon builds out its campus. That incentive, projected initially at about $23 million, is dependent on how many square feet of office space Amazon occupies in the county.
The county said in a statement it “values the ongoing partnership” it has with Amazon throughout the creation of the second headquarters, which it noted has always been a multiyear project.
“We’re confident Amazon remains committed to the second phase of the project – PenPlace – and its benefits to the community,” it said.
Amazon had previously said it planned to complete the project by 2025.
After a four-year hiatus, long-running Seattle music festival Bumbershoot will return this Labor Day weekend — with help from e-commerce giant Amazon.
As announced Tuesday (Feb. 21) by new Bumbershoot producer New Rising Sun, the festival will return for its 50th edition on Sept. 2-3, 2023, and Amazon has agreed to underwrite presale tickets for this year’s edition to keep it affordable. The e-retailer will sponsor a special early bird $50 single-day ticket and $85 two-day general admission ticket — prices that are 50% lower than when the event was last held in 2019. Amazon has also announced plans to work with arts organization Third Stone to give out 5,000 tickets to area non-profits and community organizations.
First launched in 1971, Bumbershoot faced a double whammy in recent years thanks to declining ticket sales and attendance in the 2010s followed by three years of closure due to the pandemic.
Bumbershoot was previously produced by AEG Presents, which had agreed to produce the festival with Seattle non-profit festival production company One Reel beginning in 2014 to help cover the $1 million in debt One Reel had racked up and restore the event’s financial footing. In 2019, AEG Pacific Northwest vp Rob Thomas announced the company was not renewing its agreement, hinting at financial differences with One Reel. That same year, a barricade collapse at Bumbershoot injured four attendees.
One Reel executives announced plans to stage the festival in 2020, only to be stymied by the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2021, host venue the Seattle Center put out a new request for proposals for the event, with the winning bid going to New Rising Sun, a collective founded by Neumos co-owner Steven Severin, who now serves as Bumbershoot’s co-president & director of music programming; Vital 5 Productions founder Greg Lundgren, who serves as curator; and McCaw Hall general manager Joe Paganelli, who serves as producer.
“We heard from our community and took action — fulfilling our promise of affordability and inclusivity,” Severin said in a statement to Billboard. “When re-imagining our festival for this return, we examined everything through an arts lens and expanded upon what art is and can be. We look forward to sharing our vision this Labor Day weekend.”
“As ticket prices steadily climb for concerts and events around the globe, we’re excited to support reduced and free ticket prices, creating opportunity for more of our community to enjoy the diversity of Seattle’s creative ecosystem, participate in Bumbershoot’s exciting education programs, and immerse themselves in the arts,” added Amazon senior vp/general counsel/secretary David Zapolsky.
Tickets go on sale Friday (Feb. 24) at 10:00 a.m. PT via bumbershoot.com. Fans are encouraged to purchase tickets in advance as they are expected to sell quickly. A performer lineup will be announced at a later date.
Amazon is set to lay off more than 18,000 workers, CEO Andy Jassy said in a note to employees Wednesday.
The majority of the cuts will impact staffers in the Amazon Stores and People Experience and Technology divisions, the latter of which includes teams involved in Human Resources. Impacted employees will be contacted beginning Jan. 18, though the company had already begun laying off staff in November across its devices and books businesses, which include products like Alexa, Fire TV and Kindle.
The 18,000 figure — which represents roughly 1.2 percent of Amazon’s 1.5 million global workforce, as of last September — is larger than the latest reported layoff figures at the e-commerce giant; in November, timed to the earlier round of cuts, the company was expected to cut around 10,000 roles.
“This year’s review has been more difficult given the uncertain economy and that we’ve hired rapidly over the last several years,” Jassy said in his note, which was shared publicly Wednesday evening after the Wall Street Journal first reported the updated figures. “Amazon has weathered uncertain and difficult economies in the past, and we will continue to do so. These changes will help us pursue our long-term opportunities with a stronger cost structure; however, I’m also optimistic that we’ll be inventive, resourceful, and scrappy in this time when we’re not hiring expansively and eliminating some roles.”
Amazon most recently reported an earnings miss for the third quarter, with net income falling from $3.1 billion to $2.9 billion year over year. The company has continued its big spending in entertainment with deals for the NFL’s Thursday Night Football, which is commanding a $1 billion yearly spend for the streaming rights, and the $465 million price tag for the first season of Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. Last year, Amazon also closed its costly $8.5 billion acquisition of the MGM studio.
But the tech and e-commerce behemoth is not alone in facing the negative impacts of an ongoing downturn. In November, Meta said it would lay off 11,000 staffers, or roughly 13 percent of its workforce. Earlier Wednesday, Vimeo and Salesforce announced layoffs ranging in the 10 to 11 percent range, respectively.
This article was originally published by The Hollywood Reporter.
Jeff Blackburn is retiring.
The head of Amazon’s Global Entertainment Group will sign off from the company in January after more than two decades with the retail giant and streaming platform. The moves were announced Friday via internal memos from Amazon CEO Andy Jassy and Blackburn himself.
The news comes a year and a half after Blackburn returned from a yearlong sabbatical in a new role as head of the company’s global entertainment group that included combined oversight of music, audio entertainment, games and video for the company.
Blackburn’s decision to retire comes after a busy week at Amazon. The e-commerce giant this week fully integrated MGM into its exec ranks after its $8.5 billion purchase of the storied studio closed in May. Amazon Studios head Jennifer Salke was given oversight of MGM’s film and TV divisions, while senior vp Mike Hopkins landed premium cable network Epix and unscripted content. With Blackburn’s exit, Hopkins will report directly to Jassy. Salke, who won MGM’s film oversight, reports to Hopkins.
Before his sabbatical, Blackburn had been a key intermediary between Amazon’s head office, Amazon Studios and head Jennifer Salke as Amazon Prime competes in an increasingly competitive streaming space with Netflix and new Hollywood studio entrants.
With Blackburn’s retirement, Jassy said Hopkins will continue to lead Prime Video, Amazon Studios and MGM and will report directly to the CEO. Steve Boom will now add Audible, Twitch and games on top of Amazon’s music and podcasting teams, also reporting to Jassy.
Here are memos from Jassy and Blackburn:
I wanted to share the news that Jeff Blackburn has decided to retire from Amazon.
Jeff joined Amazon in 1998 after helping guide the company through its IPO at Deutsche Bank. He’s done a lot of building over two-plus decades, including helping build our 3P marketplace, Advertising, Amazon Studios/Prime Video, and Music businesses, as well as leading our A9/Search and CorpDev & BusDev orgs.
As you know, Jeff returned to Amazon in May of last year to lead our media and entertainment businesses (Prime Video and Amazon Studios, Music, Podcasts/Wondery, Audible, Games, and Twitch). Over the past year and a half, he’s helped set us up for continued success in media and entertainment. Just to name a few successes, in its first season, Rings of Power broke all previous Prime Video records for the most viewers, and has driven more Prime sign-ups worldwide during its launch window than any other previous content; the first season of Thursday Night Football on Prime is driving higher viewership across the board than last year’s linear TV results for TNF, including with the important 18-34 age demographic where viewership has grown 20% over last season; and we recently closed and integrated the acquisition of MGM. Amazon wouldn’t be the same company without Jeff, and I’d like to thank him for his many contributions to the company’s success thus far and in the future.
We’re going to take this time to make some leadership changes. Mike Hopkins, who leads Prime Video, Amazon Studios, and MGM, will continue to lead these teams and report to me directly. Steve Boom, who has been leading our Music and Podcasting teams, will also now oversee our Audible, Twitch, and Games businesses — and report into me as well. Both Mike and Steve are excellent, deeply experienced leaders, and I look forward to working more with them both (and their teams).
This transition will happen effective January 1st, though Jeff will remain at Amazon through early 2023 to help ensure a smooth transition.
Please feel free to share the news with your teams as you wish.
Andy
Team, some news today:
I’m planning on retiring from Amazon in January, after more than 25 years and working closely with the company since its 1997 IPO. The last 18 months have been a thrill – working with all of you in GME and launching some of our biggest, boldest projects ever in entertainment and sports. But I’ve decided to spend 2023 differently, giving more time to family, and feel strongly this is the right decision for me. Andy & I have been working through a transition plan and he’ll be sharing those details soon, stay tuned.
Amazon’s opportunities in media, entertainment and sports have never been bigger. I see exciting times ahead for you all. Please know that I’ll remain close … as a fan, mentor, and ambassador for Amazon’s creative businesses – forever. I’m very grateful for all the close friendships, across all the 25 years, and all of the teams, studios, streaming services and businesses that we were able to build together.
Thank you, amazing Amazonians. –jblack
This story was originally published by The Hollywood Reporter.
All products and services featured are independently chosen by editors. However, Billboard may receive a commission on orders placed through its retail links, and the retailer may receive certain auditable data for accounting purposes.Amazon Music is one of the best music streaming services online, offering the ability to stream your favorite songs in premium HD quality. And right now Amazon Music is offering a three-month free trial for Black Friday.
The free trial (which you can get here) is one of the best Black Friday streaming deals for music lovers — the site normally only offers a 30-day free trial to Amazon Music Unlimited, so this is like getting up to three additional months of free streaming (Prime members get up to four months free).
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Get three months of free Amazon Music Unlimited here, then continue at $9.99/month after the free trial ends. You can cancel at any time. While Amazon Prime members get access to epic sales, the Amazon Music offer is open to both Prime members and non-Prime members.
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For Black Friday and Cyber Monday, Amazon is offering some of the year’s deepest discounts on headphones, speakers, TV’s, furniture, appliances, smartphones, soundbars, clothes and shoes, record players, air purifiers, beauty must haves, haircare items, personal care essentials, air fryers, blenders and other kitchenware, pet supplies, mattresses and bedding, laptops and computers, cameras, air conditioners, outdoor gear, Blu-rays, DVDs and tons of other products from major brands such as Apple, Samsung, Fitbit, Roku, Vitamix, Philips, Casper, Sony, Bose, Braun, Black + Decker, KitchenAid, Cuisinart, Murad, Kindle and other Amazon devices, plus, Amazon Essentials and Amazon Basics.
First, induction into the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame. Now, Dolly Parton has been feted with a $100 million award from Amazon executive chairman Jeff Bezos for her philanthropic work.
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The iconic singer and songwriter is the latest recipient of the Bezos Courage & Civility Award, which recognizes “leaders who aim high, find solutions and who always do it with civility,” comments journalist and Bezos’ partner Lauren Sanchez.
Each awardee is expected to direct the sum to “the charities that they see fit,” adds Sanchez during a presentation, posted to social channels Sunday (Nov. 13).
Parton, notes Bezos, “embodies these ideas so thoroughly. She gives with her heart, what she’s done for kids, and literacy and so many other things, is just incredible.” She will “put this $100 million award to great use helping so many people,” he continues.
Parton was typically modest of her fine work. “When people are in a position to help, you should help. And I know that I’ve always said, I try to put my money where my heart is,” she said as she took the podium to receive the award. “I will do my best to do good things with this money.”
In a record-smashing music career spanning six decades, Parton has written roughly 3,000 songs and recorded more than 50 studio albums — with the promise of more to come.
Parton’s “living legend” status extends well beyond the world of music. The 76-year-old Tennessee native has founded a string of charities including the Dollywood Foundation, which focuses on education and poverty relief. Last year, it emerged that she donated $1 million to Vanderbilt University’s Medical Center to help develop a vaccine during the COVID-19 pandemic, she was included in the Time 100 and People of the Year honors, raised $700,000 for Tennessee flood relief and found the time to release a new fragrance.
During her speech at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony Nov. 5, 2022 at Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles, she teased an upcoming rock album. She also treated the audience to a new rock song that had her declaring: “I still got rock and roll down in my country soul.”
Amazon’s Courage and Civility award was started in 2021, with prizes bestowed to activist Van Jones, who served as founding CEO of the REFORM Alliance and Dream Corps, and chef and humanitarian Jose Andres, who established World Central Kitchen, which provides food in disaster-hit areas around the globe.
If Rihanna‘s Super Bowl halftime show is going to be anything like her Savage x Fenty Show Vol. 4, then viewers are bound to break a sweat.
Rihanna, who’s also the fashion show’s executive producer and creative director, assembled an all-star team of models, actors and musicians on the 87-acre South Coast Botanic Garden in Palos Verdes Estates, California, for the event. But this isn’t some typical runway walk in the park. The latest installment of Savage x Fenty plays out like a wildly entertaining fever dream that’ll keep us wanting to relive it night after night.
Savage x Fenty Show Vol. 4 will premiere Wednesday on Prime Video, where Navy stationed in more than 240 countries and territories can tune in from around the world. And the latest Savage x Fenty collection — with all-inclusive sizing that ranges from 30A to 42H/46DDD for bras and XS-4X/XS-XXXXL for underwear, sleepwear and loungewear — will be available for purchase at the Amazon Fashion store and at Savage X Fenty on Wednesday, the same date the show airs.
Here are the eight can’t-miss moments from the Savage x Fenty Show Vol. 4.
Amazon Music will expand its ad-free offering for Prime members from 2 million songs to more than 100 million songs, the company announced on Tuesday (November 1). There is one caveat, however: Prime members can only listen on shuffle, unless they upgrade to Amazon Music Unlimited.
Along with the increased access to music, Amazon announced that Prime members will also have access to a wide-selection of ad-free podcasts, plus a newly launched Podcast Previews feature that lets listeners easily test snippets of episodes to see if they like them.
“When Amazon Music first launched for Prime members, we offered an ad-free catalog of 2 million songs, which was completely unique for music streaming at the time,” Steve Boom, vp of Amazon Music, said in a statement. “We continue… to bring even more entertainment to Prime members, on top of the convenience and value they already enjoy. We can’t wait for members to experience not only a massively expanded catalog of songs, but also the largest selection of ad-free top podcasts anywhere, at no additional cost to their membership.”
This expansion follows the news from April that Amazon Music Unlimited raised its price for Prime subscribers from $7.99 per month to $8.99 (or from $79 per year to $89) and similarly upped the cost of its single-device plan (for Amazon’s Echo and Fire TV devices) from $3.99 to $4.99 per month. Other prominent streaming services recently took similar steps, with YouTube’s Premium Family plan — which includes its music subscription service — jumping from $17.99 to $22.99 per month, and Apple Music individual plans climbing from $9.99 to $10.99.
Amazon launched Prime Music with over one million songs, primarily catalog material, in 2014. Two years later, the company rolled out a multi-tiered offering, Amazon Music Unlimited, with many more titles.
“From our perspective, with Prime we helped push the music industry away from the one-size-fits all approach to music streaming, and to go after different customer segments,” Boom told Billboard at the time. “We’re going to grow the market [and add] new customers to streaming with a great way to get into streaming with really low friction.”
In 2020, Amazon said it had “more than 55 million” subscribers across its various listening tiers.
Amazon has laid off around 150 employees at its recently launched live-radio app Amp, according to a report at Business Insider. Though Amazon would not comment on the numbers in the report, the company confirms to Billboard that it has chosen “to consolidate a few teams” at the division.
“At Amazon we think big, experiment, and invest in new ideas to delight customers,” said the company in a statement. “We also continually evaluate the progress and potential of our products and services to deliver customer value, and we regularly make adjustments based on those assessments. We’ve made the decision to consolidate a few teams so we can focus on the growth and scaling of Amp.”
Amazon is working to identify other opportunities within the company for affected employees.
Launched in March, Amp allows users to host their own shows by streaming music from a catalog of tens of millions of licensed songs from the three major labels, as well as Indies including Beggars Group, PIAS, Believe and CD Baby. Though it’s designed primarily for non-celebrity creators, Amp also hosts or has announced shows from high-profile artists including Pusha T, Tinashe, Travis Barker, Lil Yachty, Lindsey Stirling, Big Boi and Nicki Minaj, who brought her Apple Music show Queen Radio to the platform at launch. In September, Amp announced it would launch a monthly fund to reward emerging U.S.-based creators for building loyal audiences on the app.
The cuts at Amp come on the heels of Amazon’s Q3 earnings report on Thursday (Oct. 27), when the company revealed it had grown its headcount by just 21,000 employees — a sharp year-over-year drop after it added 133,000 employees over the same period in 2021.
On a call with reporters, Amazon CFO Brian Olsavsky said the company was “preparing for what could be a slower growth period” in an anticipation of an economic slowdown, citing inflation and rising energy costs, among other factors. “We are going to be very careful on our hiring,” Olsavsky added. “We certainly are looking at our cost structure and looking for areas where we can save money.”
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It’s time to stock up on fall essentials! Right now, shoppers can save up to 39% on men’s hoodies, crewneck sweaters and other loungewear items on sale at Amazon.
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The top-rated Hanes EcoSmart Fleece Crewneck Sweatshirt is marked down to just $11, while the EcoSmart hoodie is discounted to $14.50. The sweatshirt and hoodie are perfect for layering up in chilly weather and available in over a dozen colors (sizes ranging from small to 5X-Large).
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Sweatshirts, hoodies, leggings, T-shirts, jeans, socks and Crocs top the list of best-sellers on Amazon, so you might want to act fast to ensure that you don’t miss the sale.
Amazon’s Prime Day Early Access sale, which featured mega discounts, including up to 70% off Amazon devices, Smart Fire TVs starting at $99, up to 21% off HP printers and up to 50% off select movies, ended last week, but there are still ways to save on must-have items. The two-day sale was held exclusively for Prime members. If you’re not a member yet, click here to launch your 30-day free trial, so you can save big on hoodies, sweatshirts, coats, sweaters, cozy loungewear, gloves and other seasonal necessities, plus gifts for the holidays.
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