iWorld
Sportskeeda founder Porush Jain exits; Ajay Pratap Singh takes the reins
Mumbai: On Friday, sports news content and gaming site Sportskeeda announced an interesting turn of events by bringing onboard the company’s current COO, Ajay Pratap Singh, as its new CEO. Singh will replace the incumbent founder & CEO Porush Jain, who has decided to exit the company.
Back in 2019, Nazrana bought a 67 per cent stake in Sportskeeda for Rs 44 crore. Now it has paid Rs 20 crore to buy an additional 6.05 per cent stake in the company. Nazara picked up the stake from Jain through a secondary sale in order to consolidate its shareholding in profitable subsidiaries.
On sharing about his exit from Sportskeeda on Linkedin, Jain relished the thought that he is financially free to do what he wants.
His post reads, “My dreamy journey at Sportskeeda ends today as I successfully exit the company. From sweeping the office floor myself to sweeping the market share! From a mere sports blog to a company doing $15 million ARR.”
“No doubt Sportskeeda will continue its growth journey. Super proud of the leadership team that I have built. Currently relishing the thought that I can do anything in this world now! Maybe a new start-up, an NGO, an angel investor and mentor, a traveller, or maybe a gardener,” it added.
Jain further shared a timeline of his journey, he noted that it took five years to get the model right.
“2009: Starting Up! from the College Dormitory; 2012: Sportskeeda gets $1MM in seed funding; 2014: SK gets the model right after burning almost 85% of the fund. The company turns profitable; 2017: 10x growth in 3 years; 2019: Nazara Tech acquires majority stake. VC gets 15x+ exit. Mentor gets 50x; 2021: SK grows 4x (users) in two years. Revenue 5x, Profit 30x!”
“If you are passionate about Sports! You should join us. Life is great when your passion makes money for you!”, he stated.
Commenting on this event, Nazara’s founder Nitish Mittersain said, “Sportskeeda continues to grow very rapidly across its core markets of the US and India, having doubled its revenue every year for the last three years. I am sure it will continue to make even greater strides under Singh’s able leadership. The market for sports content is deep and offers huge growth opportunities in the coming years.”
Speaking about Jain’s exit and on joining his new role, Singh said, “It was a great learning experience working alongside Jain. Being the brand’s founder, he was instrumental in taking Sportskeeda to where it is today. With his continued guidance as a mentor to me and the team, we hope to take Sportskeeda to even greater heights.”
iWorld
Meta plans 8,000 layoffs in new AI-led restructuring wave
First phase from May 20 may cut 10 per cent workforce amid AI pivot.
MUMBAI: At Meta, the future may be artificial but the cuts are very real. The social media giant is reportedly preparing a fresh round of layoffs, with an initial wave expected to impact around 8,000 employees as it doubles down on its artificial intelligence ambitions. According to a Reuters report, the first phase of job cuts is slated to begin on May 20, targeting roughly 10 per cent of Meta’s global workforce. With nearly 79,000 employees on its rolls as of December 31, the move marks one of the company’s most significant workforce reductions in recent years.
And this may only be the beginning. Sources indicate that additional layoffs are being planned for the second half of the year, although the scale and timing remain fluid, likely to be shaped by how Meta’s AI capabilities evolve in the coming months. Earlier reports had suggested that total cuts in 2026 could reach 20 per cent or more of its workforce.
The restructuring comes as chief executive Mark Zuckerberg continues to steer the company towards an AI-first operating model, committing hundreds of billions of dollars to the transition. Internally, this shift is already visible: teams within Reality Labs have been reorganised, engineers have been moved into a newly formed Applied AI unit, and a Meta Small Business division has been created to align with broader structural changes.
The trend is hardly isolated. Across the tech sector, companies are trimming headcount while investing aggressively in automation. Amazon, for instance, has reportedly cut around 30,000 corporate roles nearly 10 per cent of its white-collar workforce citing efficiency gains driven by AI. Data from Layoffs.fyi shows over 73,000 tech employees have already lost jobs this year, compared with 153,000 in all of 2024.
For Meta, the move echoes its earlier “year of efficiency” in 2022–23, when about 21,000 roles were eliminated amid slowing growth and market pressures. This time, however, the backdrop is different. The company is financially stronger, generating over $200 billion in revenue and $60 billion in profit last year, with shares up 3.68 per cent year-to-date though still below last summer’s peak.
That contrast underlines the shift underway. These layoffs are less about survival and more about reinvention. As Meta restructures itself around AI from autonomous coding agents to advanced machine learning systems, the question is no longer whether the company will change, but how many roles will be left unchanged when it does.
