Cognizant Will Fire 13,000 Employees, Shut Down Content Business; Hyderabad IT Employees Can Get Impacted

$15 billion worth IT behemoth has announced that 13,000 employees will be fired, globally.

It has decided to exit their content moderation business, and this means that around 500 employees from Hyderabad can be impacted.

13,000 Cognizant Employees Will Be Fired

A report by Verge states that 13,000 employees from Cognizant will face terminations, globally.

While 7000 employees from their content moderation business will be asked to leave, since Cognizant is quitting this business.

Another 6000 employees from other departments and projects will be fired as well, as the company is desperately gasping for air and fighting hard to survive.

Cognizant Exits Content Moderation Business

Chief Executive Officer Brian Humphries has confirmed that their company will exit their content moderation business. Facebook had outsourced content moderation project to Cognizant, wherein moderators were asked to review Facebook videos, and remove any objectionable content.

As per the Verge report, the moderators were found to be working in bad conditions, and this can be one of the reasons. 

Besides, as per the CEO, this project was not aligned with their vision, since the work  “can involve objectionable materials,” 

Hyderabad IT Employees Will Get Impacted

There are 500 Cognizant employees, who are working their Hyderabad campus for the content moderation project.

Since Cognizant has decided to quit this business, these 500 employees can be impacted, and in the worst situation, can be asked to leave.

Reportedly, Facebook has now decided to outsource the content moderation project to Genpact’s Texas facility.

Around 15,000 workers are hired by Facebook to check for objectionable content in the videos, and remove them if found.

Cognizant’s Financial Moves To Save Themselves

By firing 13,000 employees, Cognizant aims to save between $500 to $550 million by 2021, and $150-200 million by the end of 2019.

Revenues from healthcare services dropped by 1.2%, which has resulted in a drop of revenues for Cognizant, and has rattled the investors and shareholders.

We will keep you updated, as more details come in.