Essential has laid off 30 percent of its staff: report

Essential has laid 30 percent of its employees, the company confirmed in a statement to Bloomberg.

“This has been a difficult decision to make. We are very sorry for the impact on our colleagues who are leaving the company and are doing everything we can to help them with their future careers,” wrote an Essential spokesperson in an email to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman.

“We are confident that our sharpened product focus will help us deliver a truly game changing consumer product.”

The majority of laid off employees came from the company’s hardware and sales divisions, according to Bloomberg.

The layoffs are the latest in a long line of setbacks for Android creator Andy Rubin’s fledgling startup.

In May 2018, Bloomberg published a report that revealed the company had cancelled work on the Essential Phone 2. Bloomberg also reported that Rubin was exploring a sale of the company.

According to an October 2018 Bloomberg report, in response to its recent hardships, Essential has pivoted to work on a new AI-based phone that users will control primarily through voice. However, there’s no word yet on when the company plans to release that device.

In addition, Essential had planned to release a new audio adapter for the Essential Phone, but the accessory has yet to materialize despite initial promises it would ship before the end of the summer.

Source: Bloomberg

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