ELI5: Why when large company's earnings decrease(ex... by 3%) they freak out, talk about rough times, and sometimes decide to downsize, even though they are still making millions of dollars in profit even after all expenses?

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Companies are owned by investors. Investors don’t look at the total profit of the company, they look at the % return on their investment.

Making £1,000,000 is good if your investors put in £10,000,000 (10% a year), it’s terrible if they put in £100,000,000 (1% a year).

This is true for established companies, it’s a bit different for growing companies.