Apple Cuts Dozens Of Sales Roles In Rare Layoffs

Bloomberg reports that Apple is making cuts to its sales department and laying off dozens of people as it aims to simplify how it sells products to governments, schools, and businesses. According to Mark Gurman, affected employees have received notice over the past couple of weeks, but the company is giving them the opportunity to apply for other positions within Apple or get a severance package.

The journalist says the company is eliminating positions such as account managers for large businesses, schools, and government agencies, and staff at Apple's briefing centers for major customers have also been affected by these layoffs.

Bloomberg reports that employees were surprised by the decision. In a note to the publication, Apple said: "To connect with even more customers, we are making some changes in our sales team that affect a small number of roles. We are continuing to hire and those employees can apply for new roles."

Besides these sales role layoffs, the last time Apple restructured its team was when it decided to let go of Project Titan, its ambitious work on a self-driving car. At the time, the company laid off over 600 employees in California alone. Still, Apple has this practice that it gives most employees a chance to find a new position within the company before actually firing them.

During this year, Apple made several rearrangements in its product teams, but not necessarily firing people. The company has been changing leadership and giving more attributions to top executives. Among the most important changes this year, the company changed Siri's direct leadership and the executive responsible for Apple Intelligence, as these are the two key areas in which the company is lagging behind the competition.

That said, employees affected by Apple's latest layoffs believe the company wants to shift more sales to third-party retailers. While it's still unclear why Apple decided to do that, we might be able to learn more about it in the near future.