Sama is winding down its operations and liquidating its assets, according to a letter to creditors dated 6 November 2026 that TIME reviewed and reported on 9 November. We have not found a public statement from Sama confirming the liquidation. TIME said an email to Sama’s press inbox bounced, and chief executive Wendy Gonzalez did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The letter blames “declining revenues due to increased competition that was compounded by recent class action litigation that would have required significant resources and years to defend successfully.” It does not say which lawsuit it means. TIME reports that Sama has faced class actions in both Kenya and the United States.

An unaudited balance sheet attached to the letter shows about US$1 million in assets and US$17 million in liabilities as of October. A bank holds a priority claim over “substantially all” of the company’s assets. On 23 October, Samasource Impact Sourcing, Inc., the US company operating as Sama, transferred its assets to a newly formed company, Sama ABC, to sell them and distribute the proceeds to creditors. The letter says Sama ABC is not corporately affiliated with Sama.

The letter also describes Sama as “one of the earliest champions of impact sourcing” and says it “directly impacted over seventy thousand lives.” That is the company’s own figure, which we have not been able to check independently.

What it means for the workers

The people most affected are the moderators and data labellers in Nairobi. In April 2026 Sama issued redundancy notices to 1,108 Nairobi staff after Meta ended its contract with the company, according to AP and Business Daily. Capital FM reported that most of the affected employees were tied to the programme that has since been discontinued. Meta said it had decided to end its work with Sama “because they don’t meet our standards.” Sama said it had consistently met those standards and had not been notified of any failure, the BBC reported.

The Kenyan litigation is the part of the story most directly tied to those workers. Daniel Motaung, who was dismissed in 2019 after trying to organise a strike, sued Sama and Meta; his petition is now consolidated with a case brought by former moderators, as TIME reports. In February 2026 the Employment and Labour Relations Court postponed rulings in the two cases, Capital FM reported. In April, Capital FM reported that the court had summoned a Meta official for cross-examination and declined Sama’s application to dismiss Motaung’s amended petition. Radio Generation reported that a case brought by 184 former moderators against Meta and others, including Samasource, was before the court on 19 October. Reports differ on how many petitioners there are.

TIME reports that the letter does not say what the liquidation means for the ongoing case in Kenya.

Separately, plaintiffs in proposed US privacy class actions over Meta’s AI glasses dropped their claims against Sama in August, TIME reported. In October, Travelers and Sama settled an insurance coverage dispute over those lawsuits; Bloomberg Law reported the terms were not disclosed.

What remains unknown

The letter frames the collapse as a business problem of competition and litigation cost, and does not address the labour questions at the centre of the Kenyan cases. Whether those cases continue against a company in liquidation is not answered in the reporting we reviewed.

Sources

TopicsSama Content moderation Data labelling Kenya

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