Groupon Lays Off 15% Of Its Staff

Coupon marketplace company Groupon has laid off 15% of its staff today, more than 500 of its headcount. 

According to Kedar Deshpande, CEO of Groupon, these layoffs aim to set the company on the right path towards a positive cash flow by the end of the year.

Teams that were impacted by the cuts included those within engineering, merchant development, product and marketing, recruiting, and sales. 

“Our overall business performance is not at the levels we anticipated and we are taking decisive actions to improve our trajectory,” said Deshpande. 

Employees were informed of the layoffs in a letter written by Deshpande, who stated that Groupon will be reorganizing its business in an effort to focus “only on mission-critical activities and leaning on more external support.” 

This includes cutting down on its cloud infrastructure, closing its Australia Goods business, adopting more hybrid work policies and reconsidering its real estate footprint.  

Despite consumers undoubtedly looking to save money during this ongoing economic uncertainty, competition from firms like Honey have hindered Groupon’s prominent standing as the ideal money-saving tool. 

While the most recent round of job cuts at Groupon is significant, it still pales in comparison to its move to lay off or furlough 2,800 workers in April of 2020.  

“For those of you whose roles are impacted today, we’re sincerely grateful for all of the contributions that you have made and want to do our best to support your success in the next steps of your career,” Deshpande’s letter added.