Modify and its mum or dad firm AppLovin laid off roughly 12% of their mixed workers on Monday.
It’s unclear which roles had been affected by the cuts.
The layoffs come as many tech companies announce hiring freezes, hiring slowdowns and normal belt tightening towards a backdrop of recession fears, financial uncertainty and public market volatility.
Tesla, Netflix, Microsoft, PayPal, Peloton, Robinhood, Noom and Cameo are just some examples of tech firms which have both instituted hiring freezes or lower workers in latest weeks.
An Modify spokesperson confirmed the layoffs to AdExchanger, calling it “a troublesome and prudent determination.”
“Taking this proactive step – common given the present macroeconomic local weather – permits us to optimize our assets so we are able to proceed to deal with innovation and rising shareholder worth,” the spokesperson mentioned.
Drastic measures
However along with the macroeconomic local weather, which is impacting tech throughout the board, AppLovin-owned Modify and each different cellular measurement supplier on the market – it’s a small crew – can be grappling with an industry-specific cellular measurement headwind: platform privateness adjustments.
After the discharge of Apple’s AppTrackingTransparency framework with iOS 14.5 final yr, cellular measurement and attribution firms scrambled to place themselves as one-stop retailers for builders and advertisers to mixture and confirm SKAdNetwork postbacks.
SKAdNetwork is Apple’s API for attributing installs from individuals who have opted out of being tracked on iOS.
Along with the Apple OS replace, Google’s Android Privateness Sandbox is ready within the wings.
None of those adjustments imply that cellular entrepreneurs will cease spending on promoting, which suggests they’ll nonetheless want a measurement accomplice to function an impartial supply of attribution knowledge. However staying related would require “aggressive innovation” on the a part of MMPs, mentioned Alex Bauer, head of product and market technique at cellular measurement supplier Department.
“Virtually everybody agrees that the established order is starting to crumble,” Bauer mentioned. “To outlive on this new actuality, firms concerned on the earth of cellular measurement must push past their conventional position of ‘advert marketing campaign bean counters,’” Bauer mentioned.
Modify was acquired by AppLovin in February 2021 for roughly $1 billion {dollars}, lower than three months earlier than AppLovin went public and Apple launched ATT (each in April 2021).
The inventory is down two-thirds from its peak in November. It was buying and selling at $38 on Monday in comparison with a excessive of $114 round seven months in the past.
As of final yr, Modify, which operates independently from its mum or dad firm, had 16 workplaces around the globe and greater than 500 workers. AppLovin had 2,000 workers as of the top of final yr throughout its core companies and different acquisitions.
Modify grew shortly after elevating a $227 million funding spherical in 2019. The corporate’s headcount greater than tripled between 2018, which was the yr earlier than its funding spherical, and 2021 when it was purchased by AppLovin.
