Essential lays off almost a third of its staff

A spokesperson for Essential Products has contacted Bloomberg in regard to layoffs taking place at the tech startup. Apparently, the company expects to lose about 30% of workers, with the hardware and sales divisions taking the brunt of the impact. A statement from Essential has been made public:

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.

This report closely follows the news that Essential has been working on an AI-dependent product that could possibly revitalize the seemingly flagging company's fortunes; it was classed as a "unicorn" (a privately held start-up that has been valued at over US$1 billion) just over 12 months ago. But the Essential Phone came and went…and nothing else followed it. Essential failed to release a successor and a smart speaker known as the Essential Home seems to be trapped in development hell.

However, the company, which was cofounded by Android co-creator Andy Rubin in 2015, has been bullish in regard to the future. Instead of hinting at possible closure or sale, the Essential spokesperson also had this comment to make:

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

Time may just be running out for Essential Products, so it will be interesting to see if the company really can deliver a fantastic piece of hardware over the coming months.

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