So I would put Shopify in a different league altogether than RIM or Nortel... these latest moves in fact may help them avoid the fate of the others.
Yeah, it's valuation got way ahead of itself during the COVID-19 Internet Gold Rush. Huge valuation, lack of focus, is normal.
It's still a great tool.
It's interesting how Canada has exactly one globally prominent tech company, no more, no less; as one falls, the next arises. While having one is certainly better than the average of zero for non-US developed countries, and having each be in a different sector is also good, I suspect that each also benefits/benefited from being the hot tech company that those in Canada join if they didn't/couldn't move to the US. (I've seen others mention Shopify being known for lowballing salaeies.)
It's really surprising to me that the company that laid off 20% of their staff is now buying an entire logistics division off of Shopify. I actually interviewed at Flexport earlier this year, and it was not the greatest experience (delays on interviewing, interviewers who didn't know who I was or what role I was interviewing for, one on one interviews where the other party wasn't even paying attention). The week I interviewed they ended up announcing the layoffs, so I just assumed they weren't serious about hiring.
* https://www.cnbc.com/2023/01/11/flexport-to-lay-off-20percen...
It's a bummer that they're having to make mass layoffs (again), but I'm glad they're offering decent severance.
I remember a company I was once at had laid off some people in pretty bad faith (required them to relocate, and let them go after they moved across the continent) and the announcement was along the lines of “we understand the inconvenience so allow us to be generous with 4 weeks severance”, which was absolutely a slap in the face considering that’s barely two months of rent in this city.
Official announcement: https://news.shopify.com/important-team-and-business-changes
It's a sizable number of affected roles, so hopefully this is a one-and-done for now. (A drip, drip, drip over a year and a half is the worst IMO with respect to morale and uncertainty for the remaining folks. And then you end up losing some of the people you want to keep because they view their employment environment as unstable...)
