Dropbox Inc. co-founder Drew Houston waits as Dropbox (DBX) is listed for the company’s initial public offering (IPO) at the Nasdaq Market Site in New York, U.S., March 23, 2018.
Lucas Jackson | Reuters
Dropbox is cutting its global workforce by about 11%, the company said in an 8K filing released Wednesday. Dropbox’s stock dropped more than 3.5% in the morning.
The move will affect 315 people, who will be notified by the end of the business day.
“The steps we’re taking today are painful, but necessary,” Dropbox CEO Drew Houston said in an employee memo Wednesday. Dropbox committed to preserve job security through 2020, but Houston said that looking ahead to this year “it’s clear that we need to make changes in order to create a healthy and thriving business for the future.”
The company said the job cuts will help it focus on its top priorities for the year, which include evolving the core Dropbox experience, investing in new products and driving operational excellence.
Dropbox in October shifted to a standard remote work policy, which will be in place even after the Covid-19 pandemic ends. For employees who need to meet or work together in person, the company said it will open “Dropbox Studios” in San Francisco, Seattle, Austin and Dublin when it’s safe to do so.
“Our recent decisions regarding our new leadership structure and remote work policy have set us on the right path, and now we need to make sure our teams and investments also line up. For example, our Virtual First policy means we require fewer resources to support our in-office environment, so we’re scaling back that investment and redeploying those resources to drive our ambitious product roadmap,” Houston said.
Dropbox also announced that chief operating officer Olivia Nottebohm will leave the company February 5.
