April 15 (Reuters) - Snap said on Wednesday it would lay off about 1,000 employees, including 16% of its full-time staff, weeks after activist investor Irenic Capital Management pushed the Snapchat parent to optimize its portfolio and improve performance.

The company would also close more than 300 open roles, Snap said, adding that it expects to reduce its annualized expenses by more than $500 million by the second half of this year through the measures.

Shares of the social media company rose nearly 9% in premarket trading. They have fallen about 31% so far this year.

Smaller social media platforms like Snap and Pinterest are more at risk of budget cuts from large advertisers amid geopolitical uncertainty, as marketers prefer players like Meta and Google for their larger user base.

Snap, which joins a growing list of companies announcing job cuts in the tech industry, had about 5,261 full-time employees as of December 2025.