AM I NEXT? NO LOVE AT EXELIXIS (08/30/25)

AUGUST 30, 2025 — 130 CALIFORNIA EMPLOYEES

The company has announced a restructuring and an 11% reduction in force. The company has also closed its Pennsylvania office.

The reduction in force impacts 130 employees in Alameda, California.

According to a company statement, “The reorganization was based on an evaluation of our long-term business needs to set Exelixis up for success now and in the future. Exelixis’ plan is to work as a single, cohesive team from Alameda, as this is the best way to help patients.

JANUARY 22, 2024 — Original Post

Alameda, California-based Exelixis, a biotechnology company focusing on genomics-based drug discovery, has announced a restructuring and a 13% reduction in the company’s workforce.

The restructuring will impact 175 employees and is due to be completed this Quarter. It is believed the changes are being driven by Farallon Capital Management, an activist investor dissatisfied with the company's performance.

Farallon noted, “With the cost of capital increasing and biotech companies of all sizes making hard investment choices regarding compounds to advance and trials to conduct, Exelixis stands out as a company with neither a coherent R&D strategy nor a disciplined approach to spending. Instead of becoming more focused and disciplined, Exelixis is doing precisely the opposite, sponsoring nearly 80 trials simultaneously. We fear the company is spread too thin and lacks expertise across its many different trials.”

According to CEO Michael Morrissey...

“Rebalancing our investment priorities” means Exelixis can focus on label expansions for the approved cancer drug Cabometyx, as well as pushing ahead with the development of zanzalintinib, a tyrosine kinase inhibitor that’s in late-stage studies for colorectal cancer and renal cell carcinoma. Also on the agenda is the phase 1 trial of an antibody-drug conjugate for various solid tumors and a phase 1 USP1 inhibitor recently licensed from Insilico Medicine that’s being developed to treat tumors that have become refractory to PARP inhibitors. And to move three promising preclinical programs into clinical development.”

“We are taking these steps with the conviction that they are necessary for our continued progress toward the company’s goal of delivering an innovative pipeline of biotherapeutics and small molecules to help patients with cancer and create value for all of our stakeholders,” Morrissey added in the preliminary 2023 financial results.

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 DUOLINGO

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania-based Duolingo, an educational technology company that produces learning apps and provides language certification, has announced a ten percent reduction in its translator contractors as it adopts generative AI translations for its language-learning platform.

According to a company spokesperson, "No full-time employees were affected by the layoffs and the company no longer need as many contract employees, mostly quality checkers for the AI translations." The company noted that not all layoffs were due to technology adoption."

CEO Luis von Ahn has noted, “Generative AI is accelerating our work by helping us create new content dramatically faster.

"We are not swapping the expertise of human experts for AI. AI is a tool we are using to increase productivity and efficiency, to add new content, and improve our courses faster so that we can continue to teach to higher levels of proficiency.”

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 DTE ENERGY

Detroit, Michigan-based DTE Energy, a diversified energy company involved in the development and management of energy-related businesses and services in the United States and Canada, is implementing a voluntary layoff initiative.

According to Diane Antishin, vice president of Human Resources and chief diversity and inclusion officer, "DTE Energy has a new plan to trim its workforce and said it hopes to keep electric and gas bills affordable."

The power company is offering voluntary buyouts to 30% of its 10,000-employee workforce. Most of the targeted employees are primarily in corporate and staff roles.

The company-issued statement noted, "We’re taking action to further focus on what matters most to our customers: providing increasingly safe, reliable and cleaner energy while keeping their bills affordable during this time of massive investment in transforming the way we generate and distribute energy. At the same time, this voluntary program will enable us to provide new opportunities for our team members to learn, grow and contribute while keeping DTE a great place to work.

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?