Zoom President Greg Tomb Unexpectedly Fired 'Without Cause'
The decision was effective on Friday.
By Emily Rella •
It seems as though no tech company has been safe from mass layoffs and widespread cost-cutting initiatives, with small startups and even big-name behemoths (Google, Meta, Amazon, Twitter) all finding it difficult to navigate through the Tech Winter.
Zoom, the video messaging platform which saw a massive increase in business during the pandemic, was not spared from the widespread industry changes — and the company's latest shock to its executive leadership is the proof.
Bloomberg reported on Friday that Zoom had suddenly fired President Greg Tomb, citing his departure as "termination without cause" and not further elaborating on the decision.
Tomb, who had only been with the company for about nine months, made his presence known at the company by overseeing sales operations and popping in on various earnings calls.
Zoom was founded in 2011 by Eric Yuan, who still serves as CEO of the company and to whom Tomb was directly reporting to before his departure.
In January, Tomb spoke with Bloomberg during the World Economic Forum at Davos 2023 about the fear of whether or not Zoom stood to lose business as many companies are now using their own internal systems for video conferencing.
"There probably are some situations where companies are trying to be super cost-conscious and they're willing to provide a — I'll call it less product in terms of functionality and capability — because it's free to their employees," he said in January.
Tomb will be receiving severance. His termination is effective immediately.
Earlier this month, Zoom laid off about 1,300 employees, roughly 15% of the company's total workforce amid a post-pandemic decline in usage.
"We worked tirelessly and made Zoom better for our customers and users. But we also made mistakes," Yuan penned in a letter to employees. "We didn't take as much time as we should have to thoroughly analyze our teams or assess if we were growing sustainably, toward the highest priorities."
Zoom was down just over 37.5% in a one-year period as of Friday morning.
