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Snap reportedly cutting 10 percent of its engineers

The company behind Snapchat, the popular messaging app that's struggled to grow, is planning to trim its staff in what would amount to its biggest layoff yet.

David Carnoy Executive Editor / Reviews
Executive Editor David Carnoy has been a leading member of CNET's Reviews team since 2000. He covers the gamut of gadgets and is a notable reviewer of mobile accessories and portable audio products, including headphones and speakers. He's also an e-reader and e-publishing expert as well as the author of the novels Knife Music, The Big Exit and Lucidity. All the titles are available as Kindle, iBooks, Nook e-books and audiobooks.
Expertise Mobile accessories and portable audio, including headphones, earbuds and speakers Credentials
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Snap Inc., the developer of Snapchat, has around 3000 employees. It's had a couple of small layoffs in the past, but with growth slowing for its messaging app, it's planning to cut about 10 percent of its engineers or about 100 people, according to financial news network Cheddar and The Wall Street Journal. Those numbers translate into the biggest layoff in Snap's short history.

Recently, Cheddar reported that Snap was working on two new versions of its Snapchat webcam-powered Spectacles. The first version, after much hype, turned out to be a bust, and the company took a $40 million loss on unsold inventory.

Snap went public in 2017 and has been on a hiring spree since 2016, "often adding about 300 people a month," according to the Wall Street Journal, quoting figures cited by Snap executives on a fourth-quarter earnings call. On that call CEO Evan Spiegel said he expected the company to "moderate its hiring" but didn't say anything about layoffs.

In the year since it went public Snap has struggled to grow or show a profit, but in February it posted surprisingly strong fourth-quarter earnings, leading to a boost in its stock price.