Klarna lays off 10% of its staff with a prerecorded video message

Swedish "buy now, pay later" company Klarna is laying off 10% of its workforce, but did it in a rather robotic way: with a prerecorded video message.

Klarna CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski informed its near-7000 employees that 10% of them would be out of a job, leaving around 700 people unemployed. Klarna CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski said in the prerecorded video message: "When we set our business plans for 2022 in the autumn of last year, it was a very different world than the one we are in today".

Siemiatkowski continued: "Since then, we have seen a tragic and unnecessary war in Ukraine unfold, a shift in consumer sentiment, a steep increase in inflation, a highly volatile stock market and a likely recession. All of which have marked the beginning of a very tumultuous year". He did note that workers based in Europe would get an "associated compensation", while severance packages for US staffers would "look different" depending on the location.

There's no specific reason for the lay offs, as it seems multiple issues -- small, and geopolitical -- have led to this day. Financially, last year Klarna's valuation peaked at $46 billion -- while The Wall Street Journal reported that Klarna was looking at another $1 billion in funding on a $30 billion valuation. That's quite the drop.