Vimeo lays off ‘large portion’ of staff after Bending Spoons buyout

Vimeo is laying off employees around the globe just months after the Italian software company Bending Spoons acquired the platform for $1.38 billion, as reported earlier by Business Insider. Even though it’s not clear how many people were laid off, Dave Brown, Vimeo’s former brand VP, says in a post on LinkedIn that “a large portion of the company” was impacted. Other former employees echo this statement in posts online, with one video engineer saying “almost everyone” at the company was laid off, “including the entire video team.” Another software engineer says he was laid off along with “a gigantic amount of the company.” Bending Spoons spokesperson Camilla Bettinelli confirmed the layoffs to The Verge, but declined to provide details about how many people were affected. Earlier this week, Israeli outlet CTech reported that Vimeo is laying off “most” of its employees in the country. It marks the company’s second round of layoffs in less than six months, as it laid off 10 percent of workers in September — just one week before Bending Spoons announced plans to acquire it. The layoffs raise concerns about how this might impact the content hosted on the platform, such as the comedy shows created by Dropout. Bending Spoons doesn’t have a great track record when it comes to acquisitions and layoffs. The company has laid off staff across many of the companies it has purchased over the years, including WeTransfer, Filmic, and Evernote. Update, January 22nd: Added Bending Spoons’ response.