Intuit to lay off 17% of workforce

Intuit will lay off 17% of its workforce. Intuit Chairman and CEO Sasan Goodarzi announced the layoffs today in a company-wide message, which it also posted on its blog. The intention is to be a leaner, more agile organization in order to scale its platform, create a unified ecosystem, and grow its presence with mid-market businesses and accounting firms. 

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"Over the past several months, we have spent significant time evaluating how we focus the company with greater velocity and discipline to achieve what I outlined above. We believe we can serve more customers and deliver breakthrough products that fuel our customers' success by reducing complexity and simplifying our structure to become a faster, leaner, and more focused company. This required us to make a set of difficult decisions that impact our people. Today, we are reducing our full-time workforce by approximately 17%. These are valued colleagues and friends who have been vital to shaping the company we are today. Saying goodbye is never easy, and I want to acknowledge the weight this news carries for all of us," he said in the message. 

This carries several implications, organization-wise. For one, Intuit said it intends to streamline its leadership structure after identifying areas where too many organizational layers have inhibited information flow and slowed decision-making. This simplified structure will have less need for coordination-heavy roles that were needed to manage complexity. As part of this simplification, Intuit will also be reducing overlap and eliminating redundant roles between the TurboTax and Credit Karma teams so they can operate as a single unified team and platform. 

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Intuit CEO Sasan Goodarzi
David Paul Morris/Bloomberg

They are also planning to co-locate teams within strategic hubs to drive more collaboration, which also involves winding down the company's Reno and Woodland Hills offices as well as reducing presence in other locations. Further, they will be reducing investment in certain areas such as Mailchimp, as well as reworking its engineering and product organizations to better align with its long term goals. 

"These changes are a necessary evolution to reduce complexity and architect an organization that operates with the velocity required to fuel our growth engines. We are fundamentally re-engineering our operating model to increase accountability, accelerate decision making, and ensure our execution is as bold as our strategy," said Goodarzi. 

The blog said U.S. employees will get 16 weeks of base pay as well as 2 additional weeks for every year at Intuit, plus a paid transition period, including July RSU vesting and bonus eligibility, before they leave the company with a last day of July 31, 2026. Employees outside the US will receive a country-specific package, based on local requirements. The company will maintain employee health insurance coverage for at least 6 months, as well as access to mental health support, plus career transition and job placement services.

The company also pledged to provide immigration support: an extended transition period to let those on visas find more time to find a new job, as well as access to external immigration experts for advice and support at no cost.

Despite the bad news for 17% of the workforce, the CEO remained optimistic about the future. 

"As we look ahead, this is an incredible inflection point for our customers and Intuit. We have navigated many moments of strategic reinvention over our 40-year history, and once again, we are making the deliberate, hard choices required to ignite higher-velocity progress across our Big Bets and play to win in our core business. Our customers have ambitious goals, as do we. We have a once in a lifetime opportunity and a lot of important work ahead of us to power economic growth for those we serve," he said. "What will carry us forward in this moment is what always has: supporting one another, staying deeply connected to our customers, and moving forward with purpose and determination."


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