New York, New York-based Ribbon, a financial technology facilitating real estate transactions between counterparties including buyers, sellers, and realtors, has announced another major reduction in force that will leave fewer than 30 employees.
The current layoff of 85% of employees will impact 170 employees and follows a previous layoff of 139 employees earlier this year.
The decision was driven by market conditions involving lower real estate transactions, declining home values, trouble obtaining mortgages, and rising interest rates.
According to the co-founders CEO Shaival Shah and Chief Technology Officer Wei Gan...
Team,
First and foremost, thank you for your patience through this challenging time for Ribbon. We know this has been an uneasy week and we apologize for sharing this information so late in the day.
The company's situation has changed considerably since our last email announcing the upcoming Reduction in Force (RIF). This is primarily due to ongoing discussions with our funding partners.
I know we have mentioned this already, but RIF will have to be much deeper based upon the events of the last few months, and the uncertainty of what lies ahead. Business circumstances continue to evolve, and unfortunately severance packages will differ from what we originally believed to be achievable. We sincerely regret having to send you this note and would not be making this change unless it was absolutely necessary.
We will have a specific answer and decision to share with everyone on Monday. We know everyone is anxious and we are working with the various counterparts daily. If we were able to finalize sooner, we will certainly share with you earlier.
During the time of uncertainty, we ask team members who are not customer or finance-facing to shift their focus from their work to self-care, spending time with family and doing things that bring you comfort. We ask that you stay "on call" in case your support is needed to come to a resolution as quickly as possible.
This is never where we planned to be or wanted to be. We want to thank you for helping to build something important that has impacted so many people's lives.
With Deep Gratitude,
Shaival and Wei
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?