Apple has made rare layoffs in its sales department - Bloomberg

The iPhone maker has cut dozens of positions in its sales division, a rare layoff for Apple, Bloomberg writes. The agency's sources say that management notified employees of the layoffs over the past two weeks. Among those laid off are account managers who served large corporate customers and government agencies, including schools, as well as employees responsible for Apple's briefing centers, where meetings with institutional customers and product demonstrations are held, Bloomberg's sources said.

"In order to reach even more customers, we are making some changes to the sales team, which affects a small number of positions," a spokesperson said in comments to the agency. - "We are continuing to recruit and laid-off employees have the opportunity to apply for new roles. The laid-off employees have until Jan. 20 to find another position at Apple, otherwise they will be paid severance, Bloomberg explains. The company continues to post sales jobs on its website.

The company positions the restructuring as a move to optimize its commercial structure and eliminate duplicate functions. However, according to some of those laid off, the true goal was to redistribute sales in favor of third-party resellers, according to Bloomberg interlocutors. Some customers prefer to work through such intermediaries, and this, in turn, allows Apple to reduce internal costs, including payroll.

The cuts included managers with many years of experience, including those who had worked at Apple for 20-30 years. One of the main objects of restructuring was the team working with government contracts, including those with the Department of Defense and the U.S. Department of Justice. Apple's sales department reports directly to CEO Tim Cook and is overseen by Mike Fenger, one of the company's longtime vice presidents. This year, his deputy Vivek Thakkar, who is now responsible for the entire corporate and education sales segment, was given expanded responsibilities.

Apple is much less likely to resort to layoffs than other major technology companies. Tim Cook previously called them a "last resort," Bloomberg recalls. Meanwhile, other tech companies are undergoing larger layoffs: in early November, Amazon announced it was laying off more than 14,000 employees, and Meta Platforms recently cut several hundred employees in its AI division.

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor