San Francisco tech company DocuSign lays off hundreds of employees
DocuSign has laid off 9% of its employees, the San Francisco-based tech company announced in an Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing Wednesday. Headquartered in SoMa, the company had 7,461 employees across 17 offices, meaning that approximately 671 people would lose their jobs.
The company — a unicorn that has soared from a pre-IPO valuation of $3 billion in 2018 to approximately $11 billion as of publication time — specializes in electronic signature management software. That software allows companies to issue documents to clients to sign electronically, across many different types of devices.
The layoffs are part of a restructuring plan for DocuSign that it hopes to “substantially complete” by the end of fiscal 2023, and will cost between $30 million to $40 million, according to the SEC filing. The move comes before its new CEO, Allan Thygesen, previously an executive at Google who led the search giant's advertising business in the Americas, starts Oct. 10. DocuSign has seen its fortunes rise and fall with the pandemic, like many other companies now undergoing layoffs have as demand for their services tapers off.
“We are recalibrating our team to address the rapidly-shifting market dynamics. This week we made tough decisions to reduce our workforce to adjust to our changing business priorities,” the company said in a statement. “This was not a move we made lightly or in haste, but was necessary to ensure we are capitalizing on our long-term opportunity and setting up the company for future success.”
