Struggling EV startup Fisker reportedly laid off hundreds of employees last week in a bid to stay in business as it continued to search for funding, a buyout or prepare for bankruptcy.
According to techcrunch.com, workers suspected layoffs were coming when the company directed everyone to work from home, an out of character directive, according to multiple current and former employees. The layoffs were announced during an all personnel meeting held last Wednesday morning.
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Founder and CEO Henrik Fisker told employees the large investor, to which his company owes money, and the chief restructuring officer working on the investor’s behalf wanted to sack more people, employees who attended told techcrunch.com.
The report said Fisker had never disclosed who was ultimately behind the convertible debt investment in question, though Henrik Fisker did reference Heights Capital Management during last week’d meeting when discussing the layoffs, according to the two employees. Heights Capital Management is an affiliate of financial services giant Susquehanna International Group.
One current and one laid off employee estimated only about 150 people remain at the company, according to techcrunch.com.
The report noted Fisker had already gone through several rounds of layoffs and had announced cuts of 15% in February. It employed 1,135 people as of April 19, according to a regulatory filing. Those workforce numbers were reduced by an unknown amount after another round of layoffs in late April, and another series in late May before Wednesday’s cuts, techcrunch.com added.
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By GlobalDataRestructuring officer John DiDonato had previously told California’s Employment Development Department on 29 April it planned to lay off more than 300 workers on 28 June if the company was “unable to address its operating cash requirements,” according to documents obtained by TechCrunch.
Despite the widespread cuts, Henrik Fisker struck a somber-but-determined tone during the call, according to techcrunch.com sources. At one point, he noted that the company built “something great” and would continue to sell its one and only EV — the Ocean SUV — to people who want to buy them.
He also suggested laid off workers would be rehired once the company was back up and running, according to the account of a person who attended the meeting.
Techcrunch.com said many workers initially learned they were laid off after losing access to Microsoft services like Teams or Outlook. Later in the day, some employees received an email officially announcing they were terminated with one week of severance. Laid off employees reportedly echoed similar details in posts on LinkedIn.
These new layoffs came after months of troubles at Fisker, and less than a year after the company began full scale deliveries of the Ocean SUV, techcrunch.com said.
