Zillow laid off over 500 employees on Tuesday morning in the second round of layoffs this year, CEO Jeremy Wacksman announced in an email to staff, which was shared with Inman.
The cuts, which come a day before the company is set to share its second quarter earnings on Wednesday, are part of the company’s “disciplined approach to cost management across the company,” Wacksman said in the email.
They also come amid “a housing market that remains challenging,” he wrote.
“Our strategy is working, and we’re continuing to see that show up in our results,” Wacksman said. “But strong growth isn’t the same as a company organized to continue winning into the future. Continuing to grow at scale requires us to work differently than we do today.”
Wacksman said that the cuts impacted nearly all levels of the company and that direct managers were only learning about the layoffs alongside remaining staff.
In January, Zillow cut around 200 employees, though it noted at the time that those cuts were performance-related and part of the typical employee review process.
The latest round, which amounts to around 7 percent of the company’s approximately 7,000 employees, “are about getting leaner and ensuring we have a sustainable cost structure,” Wacksman said in the email.
The message also suggested that the company had become bloated, and that Tuesday’s move was in part about streamlining decision-making within Zillow.
“We also need to be able to move faster and operate with more efficiency,” Wacksman wrote. “Over time, we’ve added layers of management, decisions often travel too far before they land with the people who need to make them and we need to do a better job of giving people the opportunity to execute on ideas.”
Zillow didn’t immediately confirm the content within the email that was shared with Inman. Instead, a representative shared a press release that Wacksman shared on the company’s public-facing public relations site, Front Porch.
Wacksman said in his internal email that some employees would receive additional equity in the company on an accelerated vesting schedule.
Zillow reported generating $708 million in total revenue in the first three months of this year and generated $46 million in profit for that quarter.
It has recently leaned into generating money from its mortgage and rental segments, which are the two fastest-growing arms within the business.
Zillow is set to hold town hall style meetings this afternoon.
This post may be updated as new information becomes available.
