Flexport to cut 20% of staff one month after CEO shakeup
Just one month after a dramatic CEO shakeup played out in part on social media, supply chain management company Flexport announced it would lay off 20% of its workforce on Friday.
The company’s decision to cut staff was made to help return Flexport to profitability without raising prices, said Ryan Petersen, Flexport’s CEO and founder in 2013.
After a messy change in the C-suite, Petersen’s announcement comes just weeks later. Earlier this month, he took over as CEO after Dave Clark, a former Amazon executive who joined a year ago, resigned.
Media reports indicate that at least six high-level employees hired by Clark were dismissed shortly after Petersen returned.
A few days before some applicants were scheduled to start work, Petersen announced Flexport would rescind outstanding job offers.
Petersen wrote on social media that she was deeply sorry to those who were looking forward to joining her company, but are unable to do so at this time. There’s something wrong with it. However, there is no way to avoid it.”
Moreover, Petersen said he had “no idea why 75 people signed up to join” and 200 open jobs on Flexport’s website would also be canceled while the company “got its act together.”
We are confident that this reduction in force will not affect the level of service we provide to our customers today,” he said.
With more than $2 billion raised from venture capital firms, Flexport has announced a second round of mass layoffs this year.
Approximately 600 employees were laid off from the company’s global workforce in January. Flexport said the staff reduction was due to a “macroeconomic downturn that has affected businesses around the world.”