Dive Brief:
- Illumina is laying off staff and closing a facility in San Diego as part of its push to cut its annual spending by $100 million, according to a regulatory filing.
- The layoffs, which STAT reports will affect 10% of R&D staff, come weeks after Francis deSouza resigned as CEO in the wake of a proxy battle with activist investor Carl Icahn.
- As well as exiting the San Diego site, Illumina is “evaluating its options” for another California campus in Foster City. The layoffs reportedly affect those two California sites, plus facilities in Wisconsin, Singapore and the United Kingdom.
Dive Insight:
In April, Illumina outlined plans to reduce spending by $100 million this year. The goal was to improve margins and free up cash to invest in high-growth areas. Now, the company has revealed what the plan will mean for its workforce.
Layoffs began last week and additional workforce reductions are planned for this year, according to a regulatory filing. The layoffs will cost $25 million to $35 million but should save the company money in the long run.
“We believe these steps need to be taken to continue driving innovation, expand profitable growth for our shareholders and put us in the best position to carry out our mission of improving human health by unlocking the power of the genome,” an Illumina spokesperson wrote in an emailed statement.
The steps involve exiting the i3 campus in San Diego. Illumina opened the 316,000 square-foot complex in 2017. The company expects to incur a charge in relation to its decision to leave the site. Illumina also warned it expects to incur a charge in connection with exiting “a portion of the Foster City campus” but is still “evaluating its options” for that site.
STAT reported based on internal emails that Illumina reportedly plans to stop all lab-based work at Foster City. Overall, layoffs across five sites on three continents will affect 10% of Illumina’s R&D team. All affected employees have been notified, according to STAT, but more layoffs are planned.
