Viaplay Laying Off 25% of Workforce, Strategic Review of Business Underway
Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent After changing its top leadership and merging its Swedish and Norwegian production units, Viaplay, the listed Scandinavian streamer, has announced that it will lay off 25% of its workforce as it plans to focus on its core Nordic and Dutch business. Viaplay’s new CEO and president Jørgen Madsen Lindemann, who recently took over from Anders Jensen, said the layoffs resulted from “the material change in the international business plans, and the fact that not all of the content investments that we have made are paying off.” The second quarter financial results for the group, which were published on Thursday, reveal that the robust organic sales growth of 16% to $448 million was offset by combined TV, radio and AVOD sales being down 16%. Operating income and net income were also down for the group. Operating losses for the full year are predicted to be between $83 million and $102 million.