Sonos Cuts 6% of Staff, Slashes Sales Projections Amid App Blunder

Sonos is letting go of 6% of its workforce — more than 100 people — after a disastrous redesign of their app and mounting customer complaints forced the company to lower its projected sales and delay product launches.

The layoffs, first reported by The Verge, were announced in a company filing on Wednesday (Aug. 14). Sonos had 1,867 full-time employees — roughly 70% in the United States with the remainder in other countries — as of Sept. 30, 2023, according to its most recent annual report.

Since Sonos redesigned mobile app in May, customers have complained the app did not recognize existing Sonos speakers and would not let them set up new speakers or headphones. The problems are such that Sonos chief executive Patrick Spence said earlier this month they would be lowering their company’s fourth quarter sales projections and delaying the launch of two major new products while it focuses on fixing the app.

“It’s so painful to let customers down the way we have with our app,” Spence said on a call discussing the company’s most recent quarterly earnings with investors. “We needed the new app to set us up for the future. Far too many of our customers… are having an experience that is worse than what they previously had.”

The company expects to spend $20-$30 million fixing the app, investing in its customer support and other initiatives to win back peeved buyers. The layoffs will cost the company between $9 to $12 million, of which $6 to $8 million are expected to be related to severance packages and other benefits, most of which will hit the company this quarter, according to the filing.