For a decade, every CEO had the same magic trick: announce layoffs, watch the stock pop, collect the bonus. Cloudflare just tried it Wednesday with 1,100 people and 20% of staff on the chopping block. Stock fell 18% after hours instead. The...
For a decade, every CEO had the same magic trick: announce layoffs, watch the stock pop, collect the bonus. Cloudflare just tried it Wednesday with 1,100 people and 20% of staff on the chopping block. Stock fell 18% after hours instead. The market is finally getting hip to layoff washing, and the religious language CEOs are using to dress it up is starting to look like exactly what it is.
This is what happens when "agentic AI era" stops being a magic word.
⏱️ Timestamps
0:00 The magic trick that worked for a decade
1:30 Inside Matthew Prince's San Francisco office
6:00 The financials that make this absurd
7:15 Layoff washing, named and explained
12:00 The religious language nobody's calling out
13:30 Why the market finally noticed
