Snapchat parent Snap is reportedly preparing its biggest round of layoffs yet, with roughly 100 people expected to be cut within the next week or so.

According to Cheddar, citing sources, the job cuts will be made exclusively to engineering, affecting under 10 per cent of the department.

“It is never a good sign when a technology company lays off engineers thus the news that Snap is laying off 100 engineers, reportedly 10 per cent of its engineering workforce, does not bode well for the platform. Snaps future as a tool for marketers has long been in question and the platform has hit a series of hurdles as it tries to measure up to its biggest rival, Instagram,” said Yuval Ben-Itzhak, CEO at Socialbakers.

“There has been speculation of an acquisition by Apple, which doesnt sound so far-fetched since Tim Cook clearly stated that augmented reality is the way forward and Snap is leading the way in AR technology. But whether these reductions in headcount could have an impact on a possible acquisition of the platform remains to be seen.”

This latest round of layoffs follows on from the around two dozen people that were shown the exit door back in January. Here, the cuts mostly hit Snap’s content division with some also taking place within engineering and partnerships.

The tech company also laid off people within its hardware teams as part of a leadership reshuffle back in September. The restructuring saw Steve Horowitz, the man in charge of the lab that built Snap’s Spectacles, become VP of technology – with his former role going to Mark Randall as VP of hardware. This resulted in roughly a dozen people losing their jobs from primarily within marketing roles that supported the hardware division.