After the huge recruitments of the gaming company during the Corona, Playtika Prepared for the deepening of the economic crisis and the end of the closures with a second wave of layoffs within a year. The Israeli gaming company is expected to lay off between 12% and 15% of employees in the coming week, about 600 people worldwide, of which about 180 are in Israel, Globes has learned.

The company responded: “As a leading company in the industry and as an employer of 4,100 employees worldwide, Playtika takes seriously its commitment to be ready for several business scenarios. Playtika has not issued an announcement regarding its organizational structure.’

Playtika is a traditionally profitable and cash-rich company – its cash register stands at $600 million. It also did not negatively update its forecast for 2022, but since the waning of the Corona epidemic, it has had difficulty showing growth from quarter to quarter. The annual growth in revenues in the third quarter was only 1.87%, a growth rate that is not characteristic of a technology company. Accordingly, operating expenses increased and net profit decreased by 15%.

On top of that, in its biggest growth engine since its foundation – the casino games field that includes brands like Slotomania and House of Pan – revenues dropped by about 10%. Since the beginning of the year its share has fallen by about 54%, but in early trading it is now climbing over 5%.

In the company’s first round of layoffs, held last May, the company tried to focus on game development sites abroad – based on its past purchases in the US, Europe and Canada. At that time, about 250 employees in the company were laid off, about 6% of the total workforce at that time, which was more than 4,000 employees. With the deepening of the economic crisis and the bleak forecasts for 2023, the company is preparing for horizontal cuts and the elimination of brands, which will, as mentioned, also affect the center in Israel, which employs about a thousand development, product, data and design people.