European developer NetEnt lays off employees in Ukraine. What is known

The company NetEnt, which develops social casino solution, is laying off people working in Ukraine, as AIN.Capital found out from several sources inside the company. The reason is the war in Ukraine. The editor of AIN.Capital tells what is known about the massive dismissals.

Job cut in one day

• The job cuts were not expected and did not take place gradually. On the contrary, the teams were notified of the lay offs on the morning of November 22. There was no need to go to work the next day. 
• Upon dismissal, the employees were allowed to keep their equipment, and were also promised to receive leaves of one to three salaries. 
• According to information known to AIN.Capital, a little less than a hundred people worked in NetEnt’s Kyiv office, which stayed open in Ukraine since 2012. Exactly how many people are left in the company is unknown. According to our information, some departments have been cut completely, for example, QA. A small part of the developers stayed. 

NetEnt and Ukraine

From the beginning of the war in Ukraine, the European Netent ignored the topic of the full-scale invasion. There are no messages or posts on social networks, nor are there any official appeals. This is interesting considering the fact that in 2020, NetEnt was bought by the public Latvian company Evolution Gaming for $2.1 billion. The history of the company’s development with all its ups and downs is briefly described on the “Konspekted” channel. 

At the same time, according to AIN.Capital, it was the full-scale invasion that caused a large reduction in the Ukrainian team. NetEnt and Evolution Gaming see risks in this. Which exact risks is unclear now: the company did not bring the issue of reduction to the public domain. Six people with whom AIN.Capital managed to communicate asked not to be named due to possible problems with the employer due to NDA violations. 

Since the beginning of autumn 2022, the editorial office of AIN.Capital has been receiving signals about reductions in some outsource projects and R&D offices of foreign companies. However, the case of NetEnt is the first known case of almost complete withdrawal from the market.