Sonos Lays Off 100 Employees as App Crisis Continues

Sonos laid off about 100 employees this morning, according to a source familiar with the situation. The EdgeThose affected — I’m told the marketing department was hit hard — have suddenly lost access to the company’s internal network. Sonos is also cutting back on some 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 top priority — so much so that two planned hardware launches later this year have now been pushed back to keep the focus on the app.

“I will not rest until we are in a position where we can address the issues and get customers to praise Sonos again,” Spence said. “We believe our focus should be on addressing the app before anything else.” You might think that shrinking the company’s workforce would be counterproductive to that goal, but that’s what Sonos has done. The Edge I have reached out to Sonos for comment.

The app issue has become so serious that Sonos has put board member Thomas Conrad in charge of overseeing improvements and ensuring efforts stay on track. Spence also said that chief innovation officer Nick Millington, who designed the original Sonos experience, has been asked to “do everything he can to address the issues with our new app.”

Spence, who became Sonos CEO in 2017, has faced growing calls from frustrated customers to step down for leading the company into chaos — despite the fact that he has led Sonos through a long string of successful product releases. “With the app, my attempts to be fast have backfired,” he admitted during the Aug. 7 call.