AM I NEXT? NO LOVE AT SARCOS TECHNOLOGY AND ROBOTICS CORPORATION

Salt Lake City, Utah-based Sarcos Technology and Robotics Corporation, a developer of robotics and microelectromechanical systems for military and industrial applications has announced the closure of its Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania facility and a pivot from its robotics hardware to its robotic artificial intelligence and machine learning software platform.

The business realignment will impact 150 employees. The company will transition its manufacturing from Pittsburgh to Salt Lake City.

According to Laura Peterson, President and Chief Executive Officer of Sarcos, “The underlying power of what Sarcos offers is in the software we have developed over many years. After continued extensive analysis of our business that led to a deeper understanding of the risks and work necessary to bring our robotic systems to market, we determined that our AI software

platform offers the greatest risk-adjusted revenue opportunity for the company in the near- and mid-term. We believe that our AI software platform will enable, for the majority of the industrial robots being sold around the world, a dramatic reduction in robotic training times while also making industrial robots far more agile, meaning they can perform more tasks with greater variability similar to how humans can perform a wide variety of tasks. In our lab environment and in simulations, we have trained commercially available robotic arms to do simple tasks in minutes."

“Our DNA is robotics, which gives us a unique and valuable perspective on how to use software to tackle the challenges associated with training and managing industrial robots in complex and dynamic environments. With the large number of robotic systems throughout the world and a product that we believe is unlike anything else currently available, we see a broad addressable market and an opportunity to build a robust software business that is scalable at a substantially faster rate than our hardware solutions.”

"By decoupling our AI and ML software from our own robotic systems, we believe we can reach a much broader market more quickly. We believe this is the right decision for both the short-term and long-term health of and opportunities for the business. We can run a leaner business that is more efficient, reduce our cash usage and put ourselves in a stronger position to reach profitability without the need to raise additional financing.”

Change is coming. There will always be a tomorrow, no matter how much you may try to ignore it. There are no guarantees in life or promises for a bright future. We see good people being laid off through no fault of their own. Just because something bad hasn't happened yet doesn't mean it won't. It can happen to anyone, anytime, anywhere. No one is guaranteed to wake up tomorrow and still have a job by evening. Are you now wondering, Am I Next?

AM I NEXT? NO LOVE AT NURO (05/13/23)

MAY 13, 2023 — 340 LAYOFFS IN OPERATIONAL RESTRUCTURING

The company has announced that it will lay off 30%, or about 340 employees, across the company as part of a restructuring meant to extend its capital runway.

“Today we’re sharing how we intend to chart a more capital-efficient path to realize Nuro’s mission.

At Nuro, our mission is to make everyday life better through robotics. Our first product — autonomous local goods delivery — aims to improve the lives of millions of people, strengthening communities and the environment in the process. This has been our goal from day one, and we remain firmly committed to it.

Over the past seven years, we’ve made significant progress towards this goal. We built a custom fleet of zero-occupant vehicles, developed state of the art AI to operate these vehicles driverlessly on public roads, and signed nationally recognized brands as commercial partners. Each of these accomplishments marks a key step in building a scaled, autonomous delivery service.

For most of Nuro’s existence, we have operated in a favorable fundraising environment and have been fortunate to attract significant funding from top investors. But over the past year and a half, capital markets in general, and deep tech funding in particular, have significantly retracted. Recent bank failures and talk about an impending US recession signal that this shift isn’t going to revert soon. We’ve entered a new capital environment that will shape the next few years or more. In this new reality, we need to be more efficient with our balance sheet.

There is a fundamental tension in the development of self-driving between capital efficiency and speed to building an initial service. We have historically invested heavily in deploying commercial services and have learned a great deal from our customers. But commercial deployments come at a significant cost, both in terms of resources and autonomy focus. And until the unit economics of these services make sense, we think it is prudent to focus on what we can do efficiently as a startup.

Going forward, we will change our approach to building the Nuro business. While in the past we developed autonomy systems, designed and built custom vehicles, and deployed commercial pilots with partners in parallel, we will now pursue a more sequential development model.

At the center of this new approach is our hyper-focus on autonomy. Recent advancements in AI have increased our confidence and ability to reach true generalized and scaled autonomy faster. We have invested in AI and ML from day one, and a large portion of our autonomy stack is already directly learnable from data. Our focus now will be on making our autonomy stack even more data-driven, enabling us to scale to larger operating areas even more rapidly.

In addition, we will delay the previously planned production line of our third-generation vehicle, reduce the scale of our commercial pilots in the near term, and explore more efficient deployment models with partners. This focus on accelerating autonomy progress and sequential development of our service will provide a leaner model for AV development, and will more than double our runway from about 1.5 years to nearly 3.5 years.

Unfortunately, implementing this new roadmap means making difficult choices around where we focus our efforts and where we cut or pause spending. Last month, we offered voluntary separation packages to some employees, and we will implement a planned reduction in force later this week. This change weighs on us most. We are deeply inspired by the dedication and passion of our colleagues and every step we take after this will be with gratitude for the hard work and contributions of the colleagues who will be leaving us.

We firmly believe a future where autonomous vehicles improve daily life is both exciting and inevitable. With our new approach, Nuro will not only get through this economic downturn, but we hope to emerge stronger on the other side. Our mission to better everyday life through robotics and our product vision to build a local autonomous delivery service remain intact, and our dedication and resolve to achieve them is stronger than ever.”

NOVEMBER 28, 2022 — Original blog entry…

Mountain View, California-based Nuro, a robotics specializing in driverless, purpose-built on-road delivery autonomous vehicles, has announced a 20% reduction in its workforce.

The personnel realignment will impact 300 employees.

According to co-founders Jiajun Zhu and Dave Ferguson...

"Dear Nurons,

Today we’re announcing the most difficult decision we’ve had to make since we founded Nuro 6 years ago. We are reducing the size of our team by roughly 20%, which equates to around 300 Nurons. You will all receive an email shortly letting you know if you are impacted by this layoff and with information on next steps.

As co-founders, we’ve repeatedly said that building this team has been our proudest accomplishment to date — this remains as true today as ever. We owe all Nuro’s progress to our team. Each and every one of you have made important contributions to this company, and saying goodbye to talented Nurons is not a decision we have taken lightly. For those of you leaving Nuro, we are very sorry for this outcome — this is not the experience we wanted to create for you. We made this call and take full responsibility for today’s circumstances.

We want to share as much as we can about the context and the why behind our decision, what we are doing to support those who are leaving, and details of what will happen next.

First, we’d like to share what led to this and what mistakes we made. The world has changed significantly in the past twelve months. Late 2021 represented one of the strongest fundraising environments in history. We saw an abundant supply of capital for deep tech companies and almost all companies were aggressively hiring and expanding. In that environment, we determined it made sense to invest heavily across the board and grow our team rapidly.

But 2022 has brought a variety of macroeconomic challenges — geopolitical uncertainty, energy crises, persistent inflation, and an impending US recession, among others. The market has gotten ugly. This stark shift requires us to respond decisively and we made the decision to extend our runway well into 2025 to ensure Nuro will steadfastly weather this market downturn. We have dug into company spending and cut back across the board. Laying off team members is always the last resort, but unfortunately it was needed after other options were exhausted. This result is on us; we doubled the size of our team in less than two years and significantly increased our operating expenses, assuming the funding environment would remain strong. This was a mistake.

Today our focus is on those who are impacted. We want to be clear that these reductions are not a reflection of the work of impacted individuals. You have all made important contributions to Nuro, contributions that made the company what it is today and will continue to shape its future. We are so grateful for that."

Change is coming. There will always be a tomorrow, no matter how much you may try to ignore it. There are no guarantees in life or promises for a bright future. We see good people being laid off through no fault of their own. Just because something bad hasn't happened yet, doesn't mean it won't. It can happen to anyone, anytime, anywhere. No one is guaranteed to wake up tomorrow and still have a job by evening. Are you now wondering, Am I Next?

AM I NEXT? NO LOVE AT IROBOT CORPORATION (03/14/25)

MARCH 14, 2025 — MAJOR RED FLAGS FLYING

The company has issued a warning of "substantial doubt" about the future of the company. 

“As will be noted in iRobot’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 28, 2024 (10-K), there can be no assurance that the new product launches will be successful due to potential factors, including, but not limited to consumer demand, competition, macroeconomic conditions, and tariff policies. Given these uncertainties and the implication they may have on the Company’s financials, there is substantial doubt about the Company’s ability to continue as a going concern for a period of at least 12 months from the date of the issuance of its consolidated 2024 financial statements. Additional information will be included in the 10-K that is filed with the SEC.

“As a continuation of the steps the Company has taken to date, iRobot’s Board of Directors has also initiated a formal strategic review to evaluate a broad range of alternatives, including, but not limited to, refinancing the Company’s debt and exploring a potential sale or strategic transaction. During this process, the Company remains squarely focused on executing its business strategy and meeting the evolving needs of its customers.”

Additional Information Regarding the Strategic Review

As part of its continued efforts to further strengthen its liquidity and financial position, the Company has amended its existing term loan and is actively engaged in ongoing collaborative and constructive discussions with its primary lender as the Board continues its strategic review of alternatives for the business.

The Board has not set a timetable for the conclusion of this review, and there can be no assurance that the exploration of strategic alternatives will result in any agreements or transactions. The Company does not intend to disclose developments relating to this process until it determines that further disclosure is appropriate or necessary. The Board has engaged Canaccord Genuity and BofA Securities as its financial advisors for its strategic review.

“In addition, the Company appointed Neal Goldman as an independent director to its Board. Mr. Goldman is a seasoned executive with extensive public company board experience and a deep background in strategic planning, financial management and corporate turnaround consulting across the technology and retail industries. The Company provided additional information in a separate press release issued today.”

JANUARY 21, 2024 — 31% REDUCTION IN FORCE

iRobot has announced plans to lay off 31% of its workforce, approximately 350 employees after Amazon terminates an acquisition of iRobot due to potential regulatory issues.

iRobot Corporation, a leader in consumer robots, announced that it will implement an operational restructuring plan designed to position the Company for stabilization in the current environment while focusing on profitability and advancing key growth initiatives to extend its market share in the mid-tier and premium segments. This plan was approved following iRobot's and Amazon's mutual decision to terminate their previously announced merger agreement.

iRobot's immediate priority in undertaking the operational restructuring plan is to more closely align its cost structure with near-term revenue expectations and drive profitability, including through the following financial and strategic initiatives:

Achieving margin improvements and generating approximately $80-$100 million in savings on equivalent volumes through the execution of agreements with joint design and contract manufacturing partners on more attractive terms that provide significant reductions in the cost of goods sold;

Reducing R&D expense by approximately $20 million year-over-year through increased offshoring of non-core engineering functions to lower-cost regions;

Centralizing global marketing activities and consolidating agency expenditures to reduce sales and marketing expenses by approximately $30 million year-over-year while seeking efficiencies in demand generation activities to drive sales more cost effectively;

Rightsizing the Company's global real estate footprint through additional subleasing at its corporate headquarters and the elimination of offices and facilities in smaller, underperforming geographies; and

Focusing iRobot's product roadmap on core value drivers and pausing all work related to non-floorcare innovations, including air purification, robotic lawn mowing, and education.

These actions will also result in a reduction of approximately 350 employees, which represents 31 percent of the Company's workforce as of December 30, 2023, with the majority of notifications taking place by March 30, 2024.

Jeff Engel, a highly regarded turnaround expert, has been appointed Chief Restructuring Officer to oversee these initiatives and lead the implementation of the operational restructuring plan and will report directly to the Board and Mr. Weinstein.

The Company will continue executing key strategic activities to support iRobot's return to profitability, including increasing its brand recognition, driving product innovation, and redesigning its go-to-market strategy. Enhancements to the Company's go-to-market playbook will focus the business on iRobot's most profitable customers, geographies, and channels, including its growing direct-to-consumer channel while rebalancing the Company's spending mix between price, promotion, and demand generation to optimize returns.

FEBRUARY 15, 2023 — 7% OF WORKFORCE

In another round of layoffs, the company has announced a 7% reduction in force affecting approximately 85 employees.

“As a follow-on action to the company's August 2022 restructuring of operations and in anticipation that market conditions will remain challenging into 2023, iRobot has initiated a new restructuring program that is expected to deliver net annualized savings of approximately $14 million. As part of this restructuring, the company plans to reduce its workforce by approximately 7%, or approximately 85 employees, primarily by streamlining certain functions across the company. In addition to the reduction in force, iRobot's 2023 operating plan incorporates scaled-back working media and other demand-generation activities, limited investment in non-robotic product categories, and minimal new hiring plans in 2023.”

NOVEMBER 11, 2022 — iROBOT 100 LAYOFFS

iRobot has embarked on a cost-cutting initiative with plans to reduce its office space by resizing its 270,000-square-foot global headquarters in Bedford, Massachusetts, by the end of 2022.

The company has also terminated 100 employees and the Amazon acquisition is still pending.

AUGUST 10, 2022 — Original Post…

Bedford, Massachusetts-based iRobot Corporation, a technology company that designs and builds consumer robots such as their iconic Roomba, has announced a reduction in force prior to being acquired by Seattle, Washington-based Amazon for $1.7 billion.

In a Security Exchange Commission filing, the company announced its plan to reduce costs by relocating certain non-core engineering functions to lower-cost regions and implementing a 10% reduction in the company's headcount.

The reduction in force will impact approximately 140 employees.

A company spokesperson stressed that the reduction in force is "completely separate" from Amazon's announcement.

Additionally, an Amazon spokesperson added that “We have no plans to operate iRobot differently than how they operate today in regards to assortment. We will continue to supply other retailers and vendors with iRobot products, and continue to sell other products on Amazon.com.”

Change is coming. There will always be a tomorrow, no matter how much you may try to ignore it. There are no guarantees in life or promises for a bright future. Just because something bad hasn't happened yet, doesn't mean it won't. It can happen to anyone, anytime, anywhere. No one is guaranteed to wake up tomorrow and still have a job by evening. Are you now wondering, Am I Next?