In this week’s Five on Friday, former Google employees speak out about how badly they think the company bungled recent layoffs, and Petco and Freshpet team up for a dog meal subscription. Also, Apple will require a subscription for Friday Night Baseball, Roku lays off another 200 employees, and Apple commits $1 billion to produce original movies to debut in theaters before they hit Apple TV+.

Did Google bungle layoffs?

Google was among the big tech companies that made massive staff cuts due to the uncertain macroeconomic climate. In January, Google announced they were laying off 12,000 employees worldwide. All employees were notified about the job cuts via email. Impacted employees were also told they were being laid off via email, said Spiceworks.

“The fact that these changes will impact the lives of Googlers weighs heavily on me, and I take full responsibility for the decisions that led us here. Over the past two years we’ve seen periods of dramatic growth. To match and fuel that growth, we hired for a different economic reality than the one we face today,” Google’s CEO, Sundar Pichai, said in an email.

An employee that spoke out shared that the email about his dismissal was a template email that felt “like a slap in the face.” The termination email was sent to his personal email and was mistaken for a phishing scam at first. However, when the employee went to go check their work email, they had been locked out entirely, The Wall Street Journal shared.

More news surfaced about Google layoffs. The company said they would not be able to pay out the remainder of maternity and medical leave for employees that were laid off. The tech conglomerate allegedly laid off several employees that were on leave, and were denied access to continued care for their maternity leave, medical leave or personal leave, CNBC reported. A former employee shared that she received notice of the end of benefits a week before she was supposed to give birth.

Google historically has been employee-centric, so changes this stark seem out of character coming from former employees. Due to frustration with the company, there was a walkout in the Switzerland branch earlier this month when more than 200 employees were laid off. There are also petitions circulating with Google employees calling for better handling of the layoffs, and respecting those with scheduled leave, according to CNBC.

Petco and Freshpet team up for dog meal subscription

Petco and Freshpet hope to capitalize on a meal subscription of their own, this time for our furry friends. They recently teamed up to allow for direct-to-doorstep meals for dogs. At launch, the subscription service will be available in 15 states and will roll out more widely later this year.

The service, called Freshpet Custom Meals, will be exclusive to Petco’s website. Meals will be based on each dog’s needs, from veterinary recommendations based off breed, age, activity level and other factors, Forbes reported. There will be a survey for pet owners to fill out, and guidelines provided for how much to feed to their pet and when. The subscription program will start as low as $3 per day and can be customized to preferred delivery windows.

More pet owners are treating pets like members of the family, which has led to a higher demand of more natural, higher quality pet foods, Fox Business shared. Freshpet Custom Meals will be made by using natural meals, real fruits and vegetables, and promise to forgo the use of powdered meat meals or preservatives.

“This exclusive, customized, home-delivered product is a breakthrough in the way pet parents can provide their pets with the very best nutrition. We’re thrilled to partner with Freshpet, the leader in fresh pet food, to bring Freshpet Custom Meals to life through our differentiated, seamless omnichannel ecosystem, as part of our ongoing commitment to pets’ high-quality nutrition and complete health and wellness,” Amy College of Petco said in a statement.

Neilsen IQ projected that eCommerce spending will increase 20% from 2022 to 2023, totaling $36B.

“This impact is no different for the pet food industry, with more pet owners choosing to buy pet food online. This has led to a rise in direct-to-consumer pet food brands, which can offer a wider range of products and faster shipping times.”

The subscription joins a $47 billion industry, allowing for more pet owners to cater to their pet’s individual dietary needs, as well as allow for better care of pets overall.

Apple requires a subscription for Friday Night Baseball

Apple launched Friday Night Baseball last year, allowing anyone without a subscription to be able to watch Major League Baseball on Friday nights. However, they are changing their tune this year, requiring baseball fans to have a subscription for Apple TV+. The offering returns April 7.

It is unclear why Apple is no longer offering baseball for free, but new updates to Friday Night Baseball could be a factor. With the new season of baseball coming our way, Apple will offer games to subscribers in 60 countries, as well as new broadcast talent, and a deal with DirecTV for Business, TechCrunch shared. With the launch to 47 new countries, Apple will have no local broadcast restrictions for marquee matchups.

If someone doesn’t wish to subscribe to the service, they will still be able to access other MLB content, as well as post-game recaps. In addition, Apple has partnered with DirecTV to bring streams of the games to over 300,000 bars, hotel lounges, stores and other locations throughout the season, The Verge said. Apple’s deal still does not include blackouts for local teams, Engadget reported.

“We can’t wait for Friday Night Baseball to start up again, and we’re excited for fans to experience everything new we’re bringing this season. Apple TV+ truly has something for everyone, from two live baseball games every Friday night, to an incredible slate of award-winning original films and series – there’s never been a better time to sign up,” Eddy Cue of Apple said.

Apple to invest $1B to produce original content for theaters

Apple has a new venture in mind – expanding its original Apple TV+ content and taking it to the theaters. The $1 billion figure is the annual amount Apple plans to invest in original content that will be released in thousands of cinemas. Bloomberg reports the films would remain in theaters for at least a month. Reports say that two films will reportedly be part of the first round of releases: Ridley Scott’s Napoleon with Joaquin Phoenix and Matthew Vaughn’s Argylle with Dua Lipa and Henry Cavill. Apple has not confirmed these selections.

This isn’t a new strategy for Apple, though the investment and details may differ from its previous attempt to make Apple TV+ a household name. In September 2019, Variety reported that Apple would release The Banker, Hala and The Elephant Queen in theaters nationwide before making them available on Apple TV+.

It seems that Apple TV+ is trying to compete with larger streaming companies like Amazon and Warner Bros. Discovery by getting their movies in theaters too. In November, Amazon announced that it planned to spend $1 billion on 12 to 15 movies a year, said PYMNTS. Having closed the MGM acquisition for $8.5 billion in 2022 puts Amazon in a better position to compete. The big question with Amazon is if they are still in a financial position to spend $1 billion on theatrical productions to later debut on Prime Video after laying off 27,000. Will Apple have better luck?

Roku lays off another 200 employees

Earlier this week, Roku, Inc. has approved a restructuring plan in an effort to reduce spending and reprioritize projects with a better return on their investment, according to an 8-K filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. As part of the restructuring, Roku will lay off 200 employees, representing about 6% of their total workforce. The new plan will also allow the company to reduce its physical footprint which will not be needed.

In the SEC filing, Roku said it expects to incur one-time expenses of $30 million to $35 million as part of the plan, including severance payments, notice pay, employee benefits contributions, as well as costs related to early exiting or subleasing of office space. The majority of those costs will be recognized in the first quarter of fiscal year 2023. The staffing reductions, including cash payments, will be mostly complete by the end of the second quarter of fiscal year 2023.

This is the second round of layoffs for Roku in the last six months. In November, Roku laid off 200 employees in the U.S., or approximately 5% of their total workforce. At that time, Roku estimated one-time charges of $28 million to $31 million, according to an SEC filing.

News of the latest layoffs comes just two weeks after Roku announced that they had been impacted by the demise of Silicon Valley Bank. Roku had approximately $487 million, or 26%, of the company’s cash and cash equivalents, exceeding the FDIC insured limit of $250,000 per account. The FDIC has said they will cover the uninsured portion of Roku’s eligible deposits, reported Media Post.