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Amazon still ‘fully committed’ to Alexa despite job cuts, hardware chief says



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David Limp, senior vice president of devices and services at Amazon.com Inc., presents the Amazon Echo Dot smart speaker during an unveiling event at the company’s Spheres headquarters in Seattle, Washington, U.S., on Thursday, Sept. 20, 2018.Andrew Burton | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesAmazon hasn’t given up on its Alexa voice assistant, hardware chief Dave Limp said Friday, even though the team behind the technology was a prime target of the largest layoffs in the company’s history.Amazon last year began laying off employees in its corporate workforce as part of CEO Andy Jassy’s broader move to curtail expenses amid a worsening economic outlook and slowing revenue growth. The company’s devices and services organization, which oversees the development of products such as Alexa, Echo smart speakers and Kindle e-readers, was among the groups affected.related investing newsJust under 2,000 people in Limp’s division were let go as a result of the job cuts, he told CNBC’s Jon Fortt in an interview on TechCheck.This week, Jassy said the company aims to eliminate more than 18,000 roles, mostly in its stores and human resources organizations. Previously, a person familiar with the matter told CNBC that 10,000 employees would be cut, bu …

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