Sonos lays off 100 employees as its app crisis continues

Sonos laid off approximately 100 employees this morning, a source familiar with the situation tells The Verge. Those affected — I’m told the marketing division took a significant hit — abruptly lost access to the company’s internal network. Sonos is also in the process of winding down some of its customer support offices, including one in Amsterdam that will close later this year.

These latest cuts come as Sonos continues to grapple with the fallout from its disastrous mobile app redesign. On Sonos’ earnings call last week, CEO Patrick Spence stressed that fixing the app is the company’s number one priority — so much so that two hardware launches planned for later this year have now been delayed to keep all focus on the app.

“I will not rest until we’re in a position where we’ve addressed the issues and have customers raving about Sonos again,” Spence said. “We believe our focus needs to be addressing the app ahead of everything else.” You’d think that reducing the company’s workforce would be antithetical to that goal, but that’s just what Sonos has done. The Verge has reached out to Sonos for comment.

The app predicament has become so dire that Sonos has put board member Thomas Conrad in charge of overseeing improvements and ensuring that the effort remains on track. Spence also said that chief innovation officer Nick Millington, who architected the original Sonos system experience, has been asked “to do whatever it takes to address the issues with our new app.”

Spence, who became CEO of Sonos in 2017, has increasingly faced calls from frustrated customers to step down for having steered the company into this mess — despite the fact that he has guided Sonos through a long line of successful product releases. “With the app, my push for speed backfired,” he acknowledged during the August 7th call.