SUNNYVALE — A tech company and a high-profile retailer are among the latest companies to reveal staffing cutbacks that are poised to erase jobs held by workers in the Bay Area, official state filings show.
Quanergy, which has developed new uses for lidar technology; and Bed Bath & Beyond, a high-profile retailer, are included in a fresh crop of businesses that have posted WARN notices to alert the state Employment Development Department of plans to cut jobs.
Sunnyvale-based Quanergy has revealed plans to chop 72 jobs in Sunnyvale.
Bed Bath and Beyond intends to cut 36 positions in its San Jose store at 5353 Almaden Expressway in San Jose.
Tech and biotech companies, over a period starting on Oct. 1 of this year, have now revealed or conducted plans to eliminate the jobs of at least 8,000 workers in the Bay Area, this news organization’s review of WARN notices filed with the state EDD shows.
The retailer confirmed the plans to shutter the South Bay store
“Bed Bath & Beyond has decided to close the San Jose location in the coming months,” the retailer stated in comments emailed to this news organization. “We previously shared this information with our valued associates.”
The WARN notice stated that 36 jobs would be eliminated at the Bed, Bath and Beyond location. The effective date of the job cuts is March 26, 2023, a post on the EDD’s public site stated.
“While the decision to close a store is always a difficult one, Bed Bath & Beyond looks forward to serving area customers at the nearby store in Santa Clara,” the company stated in the email. This other store is located on Stevens Creek Boulevard near Lawrence Expressway.
The layoffs at Quanergy arise from the company’s decision to file for bankruptcy through a Chapter 11 reorganization.
Sunnyvale-based Quanergy intends to conduct a sale process that could include selling off technologies that a buyer might find attractive.
“The company intends to broaden its marketing efforts to potential purchasers interested in specific business segments or assets as well as continuing to seek a going concern sale of the business,” Quanergy stated in a prepared release to disclose the bankruptcy filing.
Quanergy said it also has reduced operating expenses and has settled a patent dispute with another lidar company, San Jose-based Velodyne.
In November, Quanergy revealed that it had decided to trim 11% of its worldwide workforce, cutting 15 workers and reducing staffing levels to 126 employees globally, the company stated in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Those layoffs were slated to be completed by the end of 2022.
Quanergy’s WARN notice with the state EDD disclosed that the company intends to initiate its most recent layoffs by Feb. 7, 2023, and complete those cutbacks by 60 days after that date.
The company expects to continue operations during the Chapter 11 process and seeks to complete an expedited sale process with Bankruptcy Court approval, Quanergy stated.
“Quanergy has made considerable efforts to address ongoing financial challenges stemming from volatile capital market conditions,” Lawrence Perkins, Quanergy’s president and chief restructuring officer stated in a prepared release.
During the 12 months that ended on Sept. 30, Quanergy lost $157.4 million but generated only $6.4 million in revenue. The lidar tech company had $7.1 million in cash at the end of September, according to the Yahoo Finance site.
Lidar is based on the principle of radar but emits pulses of laser light rather than microwaves to scan surroundings.
“We are confident that Quanergy’s efforts have positioned the company for a value-maximizing transaction during the Chapter 11 sale process.”
Among the companies that have revealed layoffs in the Bay Area in the recent EDD filings:
- Quanergy, 72 jobs lost in Sunnyvale
- Bloom Institute of Technology (officially, BloomTech), based in San Francisco, which provides online education for people seeking careers in the tech sector, is cutting 60 positions.
- Bed Bath & Beyond, 36 jobs in San Jose
- Plenty Unlimited, a creator of indoor farms, is cutting 18 jobs in South San Francisco as part of a permanent closure of a facility in that city.
- Festo, which provides tools and devices to automate industrial processes and manufacturing, is cutting 17 positions in Livermore.
- Johnson & Johnson units DePuy Synthes Products and Medical Device Business Services are cutting a combined 10 positions at the same locations in Fremont.
- Peloton, an exercise equipment firm, is closing a showroom in Corte Madera and is eliminating three positions.
Including the most recent cutbacks by Quanergy, tech and biotech companies have now eliminated 8,031 positions during October, November and so far in December, EDD documents show.
The tech and biotech cutbacks of at least 1,000 or more jobs in the Bay Area consist of Facebook app owner Meta Platforms, which decided to chop 2,564 positions; Twitter, which eliminated 1,126 jobs; and Cepheid, which cut 1,003 positions.
Source: www.mercurynews.com