Amazon was clearly on the hunt to expand its healthcare business after the 2022 $3.9 billion acquisition of One Medical. That became a potential additional offering to its Prime members last fall.

But then, as an internal memo from Amazon Health Services Senior Vice President Neil Lindsay, made available by the company, explained that Amazon "eliminated a few hundred roles across One Medical and Amazon Pharmacy, and realigned One Medical's Finance, Legal, and Tech teams into AHS." It then went on to say, "we do believe these changes are necessary to enable us to invest more in delivering the best experience for our customers, members, and patients."

The memo then went on to address expected criticism. "As often happens with changes like this, some pundits may speculate that we're eliminating roles because our health care business is underperforming—don't believe this speculation," Lindsay wrote. "The most successful businesses, those that deliver the best experience for their customers, typically go through phases of reorganization or realignment to put energy where they need it most. You have likely seen many healthy businesses both inside and outside of Amazon reprioritizing recently, leading to role reductions in some areas and additions in others. That's what this is."