Exclusive: Sea Ltd shuts operations in some Latin American countries, cuts Free Fire staff in Shanghai
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Loading... - Jose Santos
- 12 Sep 2022
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Singapore-based Sea Ltd's (SE.N) e-commerce arm Shopee will exit Argentina and shut local operations in Chile, Colombia and Mexico while its Garena gaming unit will lay off hundreds of staff in Shanghai, people close to the matter said.
Shopee Chief Executive Chris Feng said in an internal email seen by Reuters that "in light of the current elevated macro uncertainty," Sea needed to "focus resources on core operations".
New York-listed Sea has been cutting jobs across its units in recent months after reporting a nearly $1 billion quarterly loss in the April-June quarter. Garena's biggest source of revenue is the Free Fire mobile game.
Sea will quit Argentina entirely, according to the email and three sources with direct knowledge of the matter. It will maintain cross-border operations in Chile, Colombia and Mexico but lay off dozens of local employees, the people said.
Shopee confirmed to Reuters it would operate a "cross-border model in Chile, Colombia and Mexico, and close in Argentina."
Three separate sources told Reuters that the company was laying off people in Shanghai, which is a major development centre for Garena.
Two of the sources said as many as 15% of employees at the Shanghai office were let go this week, with the third source confirming the number was in the "low several hundreds." Read More...
