Evernote Announces Layoffs, Closes 3 Global Offices

(Thomas Dishaw) Evernote may soon be deleted from the app world as the company continues to layoff their ever shrinking staff.  A note from CEO Chris O’Neill explained that the subscription based service grew almost 40% over last year but still needed to cut 47 employees and close 3 global offices…Sounds kind of fishy to me.  Here is what the CEO had to say in a blog post:

I joined Evernote as CEO two months ago because I saw the rare opportunity to help transform a product I rely on into a world class business. Since starting, I’ve gotten to know the amazing people here and have met many of our loyal users. This team has achieved three incredible feats: they’ve created one of the most important productivity tools in history, established one of the strongest personal success brands, and built a real revenue-driven business. My goal is to dramatically increase the impact of this solid foundation.
Evernote’s strength is in its core: notes, sync, and search. That’s where we’re going to focus. Achieving that focus means making some difficult decisions. Today we let go of 47 people from the Evernote team and announced the closure of three of our global offices. We are grateful for the immense contributions of each and every affected person.
I believe that a smaller, more focused team today will set us up for growth and expansion tomorrow. Here are two things that you can expect from us over the next several months: we will launch major foundational product improvements around the core features that you care about most, and we will pull back on initiatives that fail to support our mission.
The health of our business is just as important as the quality of our product. Here our fundamentals are stronger than they’ve ever been. There are millions of people with premium accounts and more than 20,000 companies working more productively with Evernote Business. Our paid subscription growth is very strong and almost entirely organic; the number of new paid subscribers is 40% higher than this time last year. Making these tough changes from a position of strength puts us on a path to long-term success.
This is an important moment in the life of our company. I want to thank all the Evernoters, past and present, for creating a product that is such a positive force in the lives of individuals and teams around the world. This company and this product are truly special, and I intend to keep it that way. I look forward to sharing more specific details with you in the months ahead. In the meantime, please send your thoughts to me directly at ceochris@evernote.com.
– Chris