Bezos-Backed Blue Origin To Cut 10% of Its Workforce

Jeff Bezos' space company Blue Origin is cutting about 10% of its workforce, a significant pullback aimed at slashing costs and refocusing resources after years of development work. From a report: The rocket and engine maker laid out the personnel shakeup during an all-hands employee meeting with Chief Executive Officer Dave Limp Thursday morning, confirming a workforce reduction first reported by Bloomberg. In a memo sent to employees, Limp said the company's growth led to "more bureaucracy and less focus" than needed after a hiring spree over the past few years.

After years of expansion bankrolled by Bezos, who started Amazon and is the world's third-richest person, Blue Origin is looking to trim manager ranks as it works to clear some $10 billion worth of launch contracts. With a staff of more than 10,000, the layoffs stand to impact over 1,000 roles.

First flight bonus

[MachineShedFred]

I know Bezos is a "disruptor" and everything, but I'm pretty sure the bonus for the first flight of New Glenn wasn't supposed to be "you're fired."

What a bunch of clowns.

Re:

[thegarbz]

I know Bezos is a "disruptor" and everything, but I'm pretty sure the bonus for the first flight of New Glenn wasn't supposed to be "you're fired."

What a bunch of clowns.

The entire Blue Origin program has achieved its objective. Bezos has a rocket shaped like a penis and went to space. Mission done. This was never about anything more than ego. Everyone can be fired now.

Re:

[iAmWaySmarterThanYou]

I don't think it was 100% about ego. I'd call it 95% ego with a 5% his team pulled it off and made a few trillion dollars doing shit in space.

It was literally a "moon shot" for Bezos. Prior to this I'm unaware of him expressing any interesting in anything outside Amazon retail. Musk is also an egomaniac but he's always been into all sorts of random crazy shit so going to space was a good fit for him. Bezos not so much.

They'll probably turn into an alternative satellite launching company that roughly bre

Re:

[dsgrntlxmply]

In coverage of the recent launch, someone managed to show a fixture in an assembly hall and to mention a specific large diameter payload fairing, and said that they had customers waiting for that. The (pride : promotional hype) ratio was not immediately clear.

Re:

[thegarbz]

That 5% is irrelevant. Going to space is the rich person's "Me Too!" move. I would bet you both kidneys that if Musk and Branson weren't in the space race than Bezos wouldn't have given it a seconds thought.

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[nightflameauto]

I know Bezos is a "disruptor" and everything, but I'm pretty sure the bonus for the first flight of New Glenn wasn't supposed to be "you're fired."

What a bunch of clowns.

The entire Blue Origin program has achieved its objective. Bezos has a rocket shaped like a penis and went to space. Mission done. This was never about anything more than ego. Everyone can be fired now.

Not entirely true. There's also the dick-measuring contest with Elon he's still deeply embroiled in. Bezos wants Blue Origin to be a direct competitor to SpaceX, but I don't think there's any chance they'll ever catch up to them if they don't stop with the "can never have a failure" old space mentality.

Re:

[BigFire]

Not unusual for aerospace or defense company. Once they move from R&D to production, some of the R&D staff are redirected to other projects. There will be reduction from that process.

Re: that sucks, bro

[SuperDre]

It's managers that are getting fired, as you can read from the article, Musk isn't interested in managers at SpaceX.

Re:

[dbialac]

Let me see... Amazon just raised the price for Prime by $10/year after significantly beating earnings. Now Bezos is cutting 10% of Blue Origin's staff. Sounds like some of the factors causing inflation. Let's all grovel in filth while the rich decide they don't have enough money yet. Capitalism only works if the people who own the business have a conscious. Lincoln understood this when he decided the US should pursue it. Regarding DOGE, I do like the concept but the President suddenly laying off staff sudde

That's not a great sign.

[sabbede]

It's a pretty new company, so staff cuts are a bad sign. It's also new enough that there shouldn't be a lot of bureaucracy. That bloat takes time.

I hope they manage to come out the other side. It would be for the best if there was more than one competent company in the industry.

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[dbialac]

Anything you can do to help boomers increase the value of their stock portfolio is a-ok, right?

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[Insanity Defense]

It's a pretty new company, so staff cuts are a bad sign. It's also new enough that there shouldn't be a lot of bureaucracy. That bloat takes time.

Founded in 2000, over 24 years old. Not that new of a company. As to not a lot of bloat - "new Chief Executive Officer Dave Limp has hired a slate of executives to shake the company out of a years-long R&D slump.". That was last August. How does hiring more executives help R&D instead of hiring more/better scientists/engineers to do the work? Sounds bloated to me. They also still need to work out the "exploded" when it was still in the upper atmosphere instead of landing problem.

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[iAmWaySmarterThanYou]

Hired slate of new executives usually means replacing the old slate of executives for failure and complacency.

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[sabbede]

24? I didn't know it was that old. Maybe that's how long it takes to bloat.

And good point about adding execs to boost R&D. That's some MBA-level thinking!

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[tsqr]

It's a pretty new company, so staff cuts are a bad sign.

Look on the bright side - they can always try for a job at the Department of Education.

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[iAmWaySmarterThanYou]

I hear USAID had a bunch of people leave recently, too.

Re:

[dbialac]

A very recent (NYT or BBC, don't remember) editorial actually said that illegal immigration has plummeted since Trump took office. There is so much personnel at the border that illegal immigrants don't have a snow ball's chance in hell of getting across. Now ICE has the time an resources to cut off drug trafficking. Want to guess what they're starting to focus on?

Re:

[sabbede]

That used to be one of my favorite quotes. Thank you for reminding me of it!

Re: That's not a great sign.

[RealMelancon]

Yeah. Trumpâ(TM)s plan is working like a charm. Everyone is waiting for him to make America great again. And waiting. And waiting. Andâ¦

Re:

[sabbede]

Yeah, it's been almost 5 weeks, why hasn't he fulfilled all of his campaign promises yet?

/s

Re:

[sabbede]

Who told you he's "giving in to all of Putin's demands before the negotiations even begin"? Though Trump did say he was going to talk to Putin directly and repeatedly indicated that he'd basically be doing shuttle diplomacy for a while. But that's from what he has said, not what other people have claimed he said, and I don't know where you've been getting your data.

Re:

[sabbede]

I figured that out when the entire world collapsed into war and famine. I don't know how lesbian thespians in Ireland were preventing nuclear war, but clearly they were.

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[BigFire]

Blue Origin was founded on September 8, 2000, 18 months prior to SpaceX. Granted, the first couple of years are in stealth mode doing basic study and research until Bezos reveal it. They're doing vertical landing of rocket before SpaceX, granted, not from orbit, but still an achievement.

Re: That's not a great sign.

[SuperDre]

Explain what you mean with them doing vertical landing before SpaceX? When was that according to you?

Re:

[ceoyoyo]

2005, although Charon was a couple of little engines with a frame. Goddard in 2006 was more substantial. Also PM2 in 2011.

SpaceX's Grasshopper flew (and landed) in 2012.

Both of them were beaten by the DC-X in 1993 of course.

Re:

[Insanity Defense]

2005, although Charon was a couple of little engines with a frame. Goddard in 2006 was more substantial. Also PM2 in 2011.

SpaceX's Grasshopper flew (and landed) in 2012.

Both of them were beaten by the DC-X in 1993 of course.

Also beaten by the Lunar Excursion Module prototypes of the 1960s.

Re:

[ceoyoyo]

If you mean the LLRV, it used a jet engine for it's primary vertical thrust so it loses out on a technicality.

Ride on the next test launch

[jfdavis668]

10% of the company will be offered a ride on the next test flight.

Merge it with the WaPo

[abulafia]

Having two different PR departments is a waste.

Dave Limp's previous job

[flashpoint31415]

In case anyone forgot, before joining Blue Origin as CEO, Dave Limp was the head of Amazon's devices org, leading the groups that developed the Kindle and FireTablet. Ask yourself if those pushed boundaries of technology and expanded the state of the art. Blink, Ring, and eero were all acquisitions - no credit there.

Re:

[BigFire]

Dave Limp is Bezos's hatchet/fixit man. If there's an under performing division of Amazon, he's send there to either fix it or shut it down. After 5 years of Old Space Bob Smith who did deliver on his marching order of getting lots of launch contract and creating Blue Origin in Old Space Mode, Limp is brought in to kickstart the stalled BE-4 production issue. BE-4 production issue seem to have been solved as ULA are getting the flight engines they're promised for Vulcan-Centaur.

$10 billion worth of launch contracts

[rapjr]

Would not a customer with a launch contract view a 10% layoff as very concerning? You are going to launch my payload with 10% fewer people working to make sure it gets to orbit? Exactly who is being cut? What part of my launch were they working on?

Re:

[BigFire]

As I mentioned, Blue Origin have move past the R&D and initial production issue and onto full production. That requires different sets of people. The essential ones for R&D the keep, the excess, which were hired by the previous CEO and some by Dave Limp will either be redirected to other project or layoff. This is not that uncommon for the life cycle of a new production line.

Work force decimated

[stridebird]

For real