Netflix is cutting nearly 1,000 jobs, about 6% of its workforce, in its biggest round of layoffs in years, even after posting strong profit and revenue growth.
Co-CEOs Greg Peters and Ted Sarandos told employees in a Wednesday memo that the California-based streaming company plans to lay off about 6 percent of its staff as part of wider organizational changes. The cuts cover nearly 1,000 positions.
Product, technology, legal, and human resources teams will feel the heaviest impact. The Associated Press reported that the Wall Street Journal first carried the news, and Netflix declined to say more beyond the memo.
The company is not pleading poverty. It is choosing priorities while rivals consolidate and Wall Street waits on the next earnings report.
In the second financial quarter, Netflix earned $3.4 billion in profit on $12.56 billion in revenue. Profit was up 9 percent from a year earlier. Revenue climbed 13 percent.
Membership signups and price increases have fueled growth this year. Regulatory filings showed about 16,000 full-time employees worldwide at the end of 2025. A 6 percent cut on that scale lines up with the nearly 1,000 jobs now on the line.
Peters and Sarandos still framed the decision as restraint, not rescue.
In the memo obtained by AP, the co-CEOs wrote:
"Decisions like these are never easy, and we don’t take them lightly,"
They said the business was strong, but the company needed to be “disciplined about where we prioritize our people and resources” while investing in future growth and “high impact areas to improve our service.”
That is corporate language for a hard trade. Strong quarters did not protect whole teams from the knife.
Netflix remains the lead player in streaming. Latest JustWatch data cited in the report put its share at 19 percent of the market. Amazon Prime Video and Disney+ sit close behind.
The competitive map just changed again. Paramount closed an $8.1 billion buyout of Warner Bros. Discovery last week. HBO Max and Paramount+ now sit under the same Skydance roof. The new Hollywood giant plans to unify its streaming products “into a single service over time.”
Netflix had its own shot at that Warner studio and streaming business. It inked a deal late last year, then walked away in February. A week after the Paramount-Warner close, Netflix is trimming its own ranks.
Dominance on paper does not freeze the market. Larger combined rivals and restless investors change the math fast.
Netflix is due to report third-quarter earnings next week. Its third-quarter forecast already fell below Wall Street expectations. The layoff memo lands in that gap, solid recent results, a softer outlook, and a public signal that headcount is on the table.
The company called the moves part of broader organizational changes. It did not detail severance, office-by-office totals, or a last-day timeline. It also gave no country-by-country breakdown. The message to staff was simpler: growth areas stay funded; other work does not.
For a firm still leading the category, that is a clear admission. Headcount is a cost center when leaders decide the next dollar belongs in “high impact” bets instead.
Tech and media firms spent years hiring through expansion. Many are now reversing course when growth slows or competition tightens. Netflix’s own numbers show profit and revenue still rising. The cuts show leadership refuses to treat that success as a blank check for every department.
Workers in product, tech, legal, and HR will carry the immediate cost. Shareholders will judge whether the reallocation lifts the service and protects the lead. Customers will see the result only in what stays on the screen and what gets built next.
Peters and Sarandos said they do not take the decision lightly. The balance sheet they published makes the choice plainer: the company can post big quarters and still decide it has too many people in the wrong places.
Markets reward firms that cut waste before rivals force the issue. Netflix is acting like it knows that, even while it still sits atop the streaming heap.