Dear Team,

Translation: Dear Remaining Employees,

Today I want to share a difficult update regarding Bungie.

Translation: Today I'd like to explain why maximizing shareholder value now requires fewer people than it did yesterday.

We have made the decision to reduce Bungie's workforce, affecting a significant number of employees, including most of the Destiny team and some Marathon team members. There are also reductions across SIE teams that support Bungie's operations. Those impacted at Bungie and within SIE are being informed today.

Translation: After reviewing our portfolio, we concluded that shareholder capital would generate higher expected returns somewhere other than employee compensation. As a result, much of the Destiny team, portions of the Marathon team, and the people supporting both have been converted from recurring operating expenses into improved operating margins. Everyone affected is learning about it today because uncertainty hurts productivity and gives people time to update their résumés on company Wi-Fi.

This is painful news, especially for talented colleagues whose roles have been eliminated. This decision was made only after extensive discussion and careful consideration, and I want to provide some context on how we arrived here. Over the past several months, together with Bungie leadership, we reviewed the studio's long-term direction, development priorities, resource needs, and role within our broader portfolio strategy. We explored multiple alternatives before concluding that a reduction was necessary to align the studio's resources with its current priorities and long-term goals.

Translation: We recognize many of the people being laid off are exceptionally talented. Fortunately, talent itself is not the metric that determines employment. The relevant question is whether keeping someone employed generates more shareholder value than removing their salary from next quarter's expenses. After months of spreadsheets, forecasts, portfolio reviews, and PowerPoint decks, the answer was "no" for a significant number of people. "Aligning resources with long-term priorities" is executive shorthand for "the spreadsheet says we'd rather spend this money somewhere else."

As Bungie recently shared in its Destiny 2 update, the studio has begun a new journey following the release of the game's final live-service content update. What Bungie has accomplished with Destiny over the past decade has been truly remarkable. The franchise has left a lasting mark on players and the industry, and everyone who contributed to its success should be proud of what they helped create.

Translation: Destiny generated billions of dollars, built Bungie's reputation, and became one of the defining franchises in modern gaming. Thank you for making all of that possible. Unfortunately, once a franchise enters a lower-growth phase, the people who created that value often become less valuable than the margins created by eliminating their positions. We appreciate your legacy; we just don't intend to keep paying for it.

Marathon remains an important part of our portfolio, and we will continue to support the team as they build on the strong foundation established in Season 1 and 2, and as they work on incubation efforts for future projects. While it's too early to discuss, we are encouraged by the creativity and opportunities that lie ahead.

Translation: We're not reducing investment: we're reallocating it. Projects with compelling future growth narratives continue receiving funding because future revenue is worth more than past success. Projects whose biggest selling point is "they've been successful for years" receive heartfelt appreciation and budget reductions.

Our immediate priority is supporting affected employees through this transition. We are providing transition support and, where possible, working to identify opportunities across SIE and our global network of studios.

Translation: Our immediate priority is minimizing the reputational fallout. Generous severance and internal placement efforts are substantially cheaper than developing a reputation for discarding legendary developers without ceremony. Employer branding is an asset too, and we'd like to preserve as much of it as possible.

I want to sincerely thank every affected employee for their hard work, creativity, and contributions to Bungie, SIE, and the broader gaming community.

Translation: Thank you for dedicating years of your career to creating enormous value for players, Sony, and our shareholders. Your reward is the knowledge that you successfully maximized enterprise value right up until the point your compensation became a less attractive investment than our next strategic initiative.

I know today's news is deeply difficult not only for those leaving, but for those colleagues and friends that remain. Please take the time you need to process this news and support one another.

Translation: Today's announcement should also serve as a useful reminder to everyone still employed: no amount of past success permanently secures future employment. The same company that once described your departing teammates as indispensable has now demonstrated that every salary has a price at which it becomes expendable. Once you've finished processing that realization, we'll need you to absorb some of the work left behind.

Thank you for your resilience and continued support during this difficult time.

Translation: Get fucked.

Today, we announced an organizational change at Elastic, including a reduction of approximately 7% of our workforce.

Translation: Today, we announced a layoff. Calling it an "organizational change" sounds more strategic and less alarming than saying we are eliminating 7% of our employees, even though those two things are currently the same event.

These decisions are never easy because they affect people who have contributed meaningfully to our company. They have helped build our company; their impact is real and lasting, and I thank them.

Translation: Many of the people being let go are good employees who helped make Elastic successful. We appreciate their contributions. Unfortunately, appreciation appears in speeches while payroll appears in financial statements.

I want to explain the why and the what's next.

Translation: We would like to explain why a company that is otherwise healthy has decided it needs fewer employees.

The industry is changing. Advances in AI, automation, and technology are reshaping how work gets done, and we're changing with them. Customer expectations are increasing and evolving faster than ever before, and this requires us to move faster and operate leaner than we have before. We provide the data store and context engine for the technology that is changing the world, and we help observe and protect the infrastructure that runs it. We're in a great position to lead here. To do it, we're shifting our pace of innovation, simplifying how we operate, and investing in new skills. That's what this reorganization is for: a simpler structure, with fewer layers, less complexity, and less friction.

Translation: AI is the preferred explanation for layoffs in 2026 because it makes workforce reductions sound innovative rather than financial. The industry is changing, but so is investor appetite for stories about productivity and efficiency. "Operate leaner" means we believe fewer employees can produce sufficient output. "Fewer layers" means fewer managers. "Less complexity" means fewer people. "Less friction" means making decisions faster because there are fewer humans involved in making them. Whether AI directly eliminated every affected role is less important than communicating that this reduction is part of an AI-era transformation rather than ordinary cost management.

To be more specific: in some areas, especially customer-facing sales, we expect to keep adding to our teams to support future growth. In others, advances in AI and automation are letting us operate with leaner teams. And in engineering, where the nature of the work is evolving fastest, we're simplifying into three core areas, each led by a senior leader who reports directly to me.

Translation: Not all jobs are equally valuable to the future business. We will continue hiring in roles that directly generate revenue, particularly sales. In other areas, AI and automation provide a convenient justification for reducing headcount. In engineering, we are firing a bunch of people with juicy salaries we can claw back.

That means fewer layers, broader ownership, clearer accountability, and a sharper focus on the skills we believe matter most for what's ahead.

Translation: The remaining employees will have more responsibilities, fewer managers, and higher expectations. "Broader ownership" means doing more. "Clearer accountability" means fewer places to hide when goals are missed. The skills that matter most are being available to get RIFed next time around.

We're at a unique moment: every new frontier model release opens up possibilities while challenging our assumptions. Succeeding in that environment means moving quickly, deciding decisively, and adapting continuously, and this structure is built to do exactly that.

Translation: Every new AI model release creates pressure on executives to demonstrate that they are adapting aggressively enough. Investors reward companies that appear decisive in the face of technological change. As a result, organizational restructuring increasingly doubles as evidence that management is taking AI seriously. The phrase "frontier models" also sounds excellent on earnings calls.

I want to be clear about where this leaves us. The changes we announced today are a sign of confidence in the business, not a retreat from it. We continue to invest in key growth areas and expect total headcount to grow year-over-year this fiscal year as we build the skills and capabilities needed to sustain our momentum.

Translation: We do not want investors to interpret this as weakness. In fact, we would prefer they interpret it as strength. The message is not "business is bad," but rather "business is good enough that we can redesign the workforce we want for the future." We are laying people off today while simultaneously telling the market we expect overall headcount to grow later. This sounds contradictory until you realize the goal is simply to make our stock increase in value.

We're in an outstanding position and well-equipped for the future. I'm excited about the opportunities ahead and focused on making sure Elastic is positioned to lead in this next phase of innovation.

Translation: We believe the company will emerge from this with lower costs and a stronger AI narrative. If the market agrees, today's layoffs will eventually be described as strategic foresight rather than headcount reduction.

And most importantly, I’m thankful to our employees for everything they do—for our customers, our partners, our teammates, and Elastic.

Translation: And most importantly, fuck you.

Robinhoodies,

We've made the difficult decision to say goodbye to some of our team members today. Those departing are being notified, and we're offering them full support through this transition, including severance. These are good people who helped build the foundation we stand on today, and I am deeply grateful for their contributions to Robinhood.

Translation: We have decided that certain employees are now more valuable to us as a one-time severance expense than as recurring payroll expenses. Many of the people leaving did exactly what we asked them to do and helped create significant shareholder value. Unfortunately, past contributions generate gratitude, not future budget allocation.

I want to be transparent about why this is happening now. Robinhood's business has never been stronger. But to achieve the massive scale of our mission, we cannot default to operating as a heavily-layered organization. We must be a lean, hyper-focused team where every single individual is empowered to make a massive impact. Our execution is strong today, but our ambitions require us to continuously raise our own bar. To achieve that, today we are flattening our org structure and reducing our overall team size by 10% of headcount.

Translation: Since business is going exceptionally well, we have the luxury of conducting layoffs from a position of strength rather than necessity. Wall Street generally prefers companies that produce the same revenue with fewer employees, so we are removing 10% of the employees and setting the expectation that the remaining 90% will figure it out. We call this "flattening the organization" because "asking fewer people to do more work" sounds less strategic.

Because our financial position is strong, we are making this change proactively. The goal is to maximize our talent density and ensure that our culture is defined by an absolute elite performance bar and a superlative commitment to our customers. This transition creates even more opportunities for our most talented people to grow and take on greater responsibility. We will also continue hiring strategically, investing heavily in top-tier talent, and utilizing frontier technologies to push our execution even further.

Translation: We are not cutting costs because we have to; we are cutting costs because the spreadsheet says we can. "Talent density" means concentrating compensation, influence, and opportunities among a smaller number of people while eliminating everyone who falls below an increasingly subjective definition of exceptional. The employees who remain will inherit additional responsibilities, and a select few may even receive promotions. We will continue hiring in anticipation of future rounds of layoffs and to ensure remaining employees recognize the axe is ever-dangling.

I know it can be painful to say goodbye to teammates. It is the hardest consequence of committing uncompromisingly to our values of being "Lean & Disciplined" and demanding "High Performance."

Translation: Fuck you.

Team:

We are writing to let you know directly that we’ve made the decision to reduce Cloudflare’s workforce by more than 1,100 employees globally.

Translation: We have decided that Cloudflare can generate more shareholder value with 1,100 fewer employees. Today, those employees cease being productive assets and become realized efficiency gains.

The way we work at Cloudflare has fundamentally changed. We don’t just build and sell AI tools and platforms. We are our own most demanding customer. Cloudflare’s usage of AI has increased by more than 600% in the last three months alone. Employees across the company from engineering to HR to finance to marketing run thousands of AI agent sessions each day to get their work done. That means we have to be intentional in how we architect our company for the agentic AI era in order to supercharge the value we deliver to our customers and to honor our mission to help build a better Internet for everyone, everywhere.

Translation: AI is the perfect explanation for a layoff because it simultaneously sounds innovative, inevitable, and exciting to investors. We would like you to know that we use a tremendous amount of AI. Whether AI directly replaced all 1,100 of these jobs is less important than establishing a clear connection between "lots of AI" and "fewer employees." If mentioning AI enough times causes analysts to describe this as an AI transformation instead of a workforce reduction, the stock may go up before the severance checks clear.

Today is a hard day. This decision unfortunately means saying goodbye to teammates who have contributed meaningfully to our mission and to building Cloudflare into one of the world’s most successful companies. We want to be clear that this decision is not a reflection of the individual work or talent of those leaving us. Instead, we are reimagining every internal process, team, and role across the company. Today’s actions are not a cost-cutting exercise or an assessment of individuals’ performance; they are about Cloudflare defining how a world-class, high-growth company operates and creates value in the agentic AI era.

Translation: Many of the people leaving are talented employees who helped make Cloudflare successful. Unfortunately, once a company becomes successful, management often concludes that the next phase of success requires fewer people. This is not necessarily about poor performance. It is about deciding that labor costs should grow more slowly than revenue. While eliminating 1,100 salaries is objectively a cost-cutting exercise, calling it an AI-driven organizational redesign sounds considerably more visionary and tends to produce better earnings-call reactions.

This is a moment we need to own as founders and leaders of the company. Matthew has personally sent out every offer letter we've extended. It is a practice he has always looked forward to because it represented our growth and the incredible talent joining our mission. It didn’t feel right for this message to come from anyone other than the two of us. Rather than trickling out notices through managers, we will be sending emails to every employee.

Translation: We would like everyone to remember that we once enjoyed hiring people before discussing why we are now firing them. We are personally delivering this message because if 1,100 employees are about to become angry, it is better optics for the founders to absorb the criticism than to outsource it entirely to middle management.

Within the next hour, every member of our global team will receive an email from both of us clarifying how this change affects them. For those departing today, we will send this update to both their personal and Cloudflare addresses to ensure they receive the information immediately.

Translation: The decision has already been made. We are now entering the logistics phase. Some of you are reading an announcement about a layoff. Others are reading an announcement about your layoff.

It’s important to us that we treat departing team members right and in a way that exceeds what we’ve seen from other companies. We believe acting with empathy isn’t about avoiding hard decisions but rather about how you treat people when those decisions are made. If we are asking our team to be world-class, we have a reciprocal obligation to be world-class in how we treat them. We are pairing the directness of these measures with severance packages that lead the industry. The packages for departing employees will include the equivalent of their full base pay through the end of 2026. Healthcare coverage is different across the globe, and if you’re in the United States, we’ll continue to provide support through the end of the year. We are also vesting equity for departing team members through August 15th, so they receive stock beyond their departure date. And, if departing team members haven’t hit their one-year cliffs, we are going to waive those and vest their pro-rated equity through August as well.

Translation: We are spending a substantial amount on severance because generous layoffs create better headlines than ruthless layoffs. We would like future candidates, customers, and investors to conclude that although we eliminated 1,100 jobs, we did so tastefully. Also, if you're going to explain that AI is transforming the workforce, writing a larger severance check helps keep the conversation focused on our generosity rather than our headcount reduction.

We’ve asked the team to do this only once, as hard as that may be today. We don’t want to do it again for the foreseeable future. By taking decisive action now, we provide immediate clarity to those departing and protect the stability of the team that remains. We are making these changes now because making smaller, repeated cuts or dragging a reorganization out over multiple quarters creates prolonged emotional uncertainty for employees and stalls our ability to build. It’s the right thing to do; it’s the honest thing to do; and it reflects the values of the company we are continuing to build.

Translation: Large layoffs are generally preferable to a series of smaller layoffs because they reduce uncertainty, reset the cost structure all at once, and allow management to return to talking about growth. We hope this reduction is large enough to satisfy investors and convince remaining employees that they survived the final round. If AI delivers even greater productivity improvements later, we reserve the right to revisit the definition of "foreseeable future."

Cloudflare started as a digitally native company built in the cloud. That allowed us to catch up to and pass companies that had a head start of years or decades but were slowed down by outdated systems and processes. As we’ve now become the leader, we cannot rest on the workflows and organizational structures that worked yesterday. We’re confident that our reshaped organization will be even faster and more innovative as we continue building the future.

Translation: Yesterday's disruption story was cloud computing. Today's disruption story is AI. Public companies periodically need a new narrative to explain why the future will be even better than the present. We believe investors will reward a company that claims it can achieve the same—or greater—output with fewer employees, especially if the words "AI," "innovation," and "efficiency" appear in close proximity.

To those departing us: you’ve helped build the strong foundation Cloudflare stands on today. We have the utmost respect for your work and gratitude for the impact you have made. We’re confident you will land at other great places and build many future great companies, bringing with you a unique set of skills learned while building Cloudflare.

Translation: Thank you for helping build the company that no longer believes it requires your position. We sincerely appreciate your contributions and are claiming to be optimistic that another company will hire you, but we really don't care.

Transparency is a core principle at Cloudflare, and it was important that you hear this from us first. We will be heading to our earnings conference call at 2 PM PT, when we’ll share more. We also plan to address today’s announcements live with the team at our all-hands meeting.

Translation: We wanted employees to hear about the layoffs before investors did. Now that we've handled the employee portion of the announcement, we can move on to explaining the strategic benefits to analysts and shareholders, who will ultimately decide whether today's decision was rewarded.

It’s not an easy day, but it’s the right decision. Our mission to help build a better Internet is more important now than ever, and there’s a lot of work left to be done.

Translation: It's not an easy day for you. And for those remaining: time to pick up the slack. You've seen what we're capable of. Fuck you.

I want to let you know that we're making additional organizational changes across Amazon that will impact some of our teammates. I recognize this is difficult news, which is why I’m sharing what’s happening and why.

Translation: We are conducting another round of layoffs. Calling them "organizational changes" sounds more strategic and less alarming than "we are eliminating jobs." We know this news will be unpopular, so we're getting ahead of the narrative before people start counting how many colleagues disappear from Slack.

As I shared in October, we've been working to strengthen our organization by reducing layers, increasing ownership, and removing bureaucracy. While many teams finalized their organizational changes in October, other teams did not complete that work until now.

Translation: We started cutting management layers and headcount months ago but hadn't finished yet. "Reducing layers" means fewer managers. "Increasing ownership" means giving the remaining employees more work without paying them more. "Removing bureaucracy" means some combination of eliminating meetings, eliminating approval chains, and especially eliminating the people who participated in them.

The reductions we are making today will impact approximately 16,000 roles across Amazon, and we're again working hard to support everyone whose role is impacted. That starts with offering most US-based employees 90 days to look for a new role internally (timing will vary internationally based on local and country level requirements). Then, for teammates who are unable to find a new role at Amazon or who choose not to look for one, we'll provide transition support including severance pay, outplacement services, health insurance benefits (as applicable), and more.

Translation: We are eliminating approximately 16,000 jobs. Before officially terminating employees, we'll give many of them a chance to compete for the smaller number of jobs that remain. For those who are unsuccessful, we'll provide severance and transition benefits. These programs help reduce legal risk, reputational damage, and the number of angry LinkedIn posts that start with "After an incredible journey..."

While we’re making these changes, we’ll also continue hiring and investing in strategic areas and functions that are critical to our future. We’re still in the early stages of building every one of our businesses and there’s significant opportunity ahead.

Translation: We are continuing to hire despite these layoffs. This serves two purposes: first, it tells our shareholders that we're a healthy business. Second, it helps us keep tightening the screws on the remaining employees: we're already interviewing your potential replacements.

Some of you might ask if this is the beginning of a new rhythm – where we announce broad reductions every few months. That’s not our plan. But just as we always have, every team will continue to evaluate the ownership, speed, and capacity to invent for customers, and make adjustments as appropriate. That’s never been more important than it is today in a world that’s changing faster than ever.

Translation: We understand that after several rounds of layoffs, employees are wondering whether layoffs have become a recurring business process. Officially, the answer is no. Unofficially, we reserve the right to continue evaluating every team based on productivity, cost, and strategic priorities. "Make adjustments as appropriate" is corporate language for "we'll do whatever the fuck we want."

I'm grateful for how our teams continue to deliver – for customers, for each other, and for the incredible things we're building together.

Translation: Thank you to everyone who remains employed. We appreciate your hard work, resilience, and professionalism during yet another workforce reduction. We are counting on the survivors to maintain output despite having fewer coworkers, fewer managers, and a fresh reminder that employment is ultimately subject to quarterly business decisions.

Thank you, Beth

Translation: Fuck you, Beth