DocuSign, the San Francisco-based buildr of tools for filling out forms online, announced Tuesday that it is giving pink slips to 400 employees. The layoff round is the company’s third major job cut since September 2022.
The tech company revealed the layoff round, set to impact 6% of DocuSign’s staff, in a filing with the Securities and Exmodify Commission submitted Tuesday. In a press release, DocuSign described the reduction as a “restructuring plan” and declared “the majority of impacted positions” were among the sales and marketing teams.
The SEC filing included an email to staff from DocuSign CEO Allan Thygesen, in which he wrote that the company had already attempted other cost-cutting measures and the layoff was decided upon as a final resort.
Thygesen informed staff they’d learn within 30 minutes of his message whether they would be among the layoffs. Reporting from TechCrunch indicates the message was sent early Tuesday morning.
“I am most concerned for our colleagues who will be leaving, but I am also aware that layoffs are disruptive and hard on company culture, especially when they happen more than once,” Thygesen wrote. “This is the second company-wide action in my time at DocuSign. I am deeply sorry that we have to do this again.”
Two-thirds of DocuSign’s employees were based in the United States as of January 2023, according to an SEC filing. The company has U.S. offices in Seattle, Chicago and Warrenville, Illinois, along with the 221 Main St. headquarters in San Francisco.
DocuSign cut around 670 workers in September 2022 and 700 more in February 2023. Several tech companies have laid off workers in multiple rounds over the past two years, often citing the necessary to cut costs after pandemic-era overhiring. DocuSign finished January 2023 with 7,336 workers, the company reported in an SEC filing, before the February 2023 and 2024 cutbacks.
The e-signature company’s fortunes had appeared to be on the rise. DocuSign announced slim profits in its last couple of quarterly earnings reports, after losing almost a hundred million dollars on $2.5 billion in revenue from January 2022 to January 2023, per SEC filings.
Thygesen wrote in his Tuesday email to staff that laid-off workers in the United States will remain on the company’s payroll until at least March 1 and be eligible for 12 or more weeks of severance pay. They will also, he wrote, “be able to keep their laptops.”
Hear of anything happening at DocuSign or another tech company? Contact tech reporter Stephen Council securely at stephen.council@sfgate.com or on Signal at 628-204-5452.
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