Illumina lays off 111 workers in San Diego – San Diego Union-Tribune
Illumina lays off 111 workers in San Diego – San Diego Union-Tribune
Author: Natallie Rocha
Published on: 2024-02-01 18:15:03
Source: Technology – San Diego Union-Tribune
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Illumina, the leader in DNA-sequencing technology, is laying off 111 people at its San Diego headquarters.
The local biotech notified employees of the layoff on Jan. 11, according to its Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN) filing to the state. The job cuts take effect March 12.
The jobs cuts include two vice presidents, staff scientists, software engineers and manufacturing technicians.
“As always, we are guided by the needs of our customers around the world,” a company spokesperson said in an email to the Union-Tribune on Wednesday. “Illumina continues to invest in critical areas of innovation that have high customer demand, while also ensuring our structure, talent, and operating costs are aligned with our strategy. We understand the impact that this reduction has on our employees, and we are committed to continue treating all with respect and compassion.”
The latest workforce reduction comes after battles with regulators and shareholder activists that ended late last year with Illumina announcing it would sell Grail.
Illumina will divest Grail after losing battle with FTC. How did the San Diego biotech’s $7B deal unravel?Illumina purchased Grail, a startup that developed an early detection test for multiple cancers, for about $7 billion in 2021.
From the beginning, U.S. and European regulators pushed back against the deal over concerns it was anti-competitive. Illumina battled antitrust regulators for years before losing its case in December in federal appeals court, which upheld a Federal Trade Commission ruling that Illumina should unwind its deal with Grail on antitrust grounds. Illumina will divest Grail by the end of this year’s second quarter.
All the while, Illumina’s leadership tussled with shareholders over its declining stock value following the Grail acquisition. One such fight with activist-investor Carl Icahn led to a board shakeup and the resignation of Illumina’s longtime CEO, Francis deSouza, last June.
Shortly after deSouza’s departure, the company announced plans to cut jobs and scale back its office footprint to save $100 million by the end of the year.
Illumina shells out $54 million to wiggle out of San Diego office dealIllumina conducted multiple rounds of layoffs in 2023 that amounted to 230 job cuts in San Diego, with additional reductions at other locations. As of Jan. 1, 2023, the company employed 6,300 workers in the Americas and 10,200 worldwide, according to Illumina’s most up-to-date filing.
It paid $54 million to offload its i3 campus in UTC last year. The company also paid $43 million to exit part of its Northern California office.
Illumina will report its fourth quarter and full year earnings for 2023 on Feb. 8.
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