The Blucora team ringing the opening bell on Nasdaq in 2012
The Blucora team ringing the opening bell on Nasdaq in 2012

Blucora, the Bellevue operator of tax preparation software, e-commerce sites and search engines, is cutting 10 percent of its staff in its InfoSpace unit, GeekWire has learned.

Twelve people are losing their jobs in the Seattle and Atlanta areas, including cuts at the company’s HowStuffWorks site. The InfoSpace unit will employ about 120 after the cutbacks.

The company provided this statement to GeekWire:

Blucora is currently in the process of transforming our Infospace business through innovation and cost discipline, due to the sustained pressure in core search and content.

As part of this transformation, we evaluated the business with the goal of staffing Infospace with the needed capabilities to serve our existing business and to support our new strategy. This resulted in a workforce reduction of about 10% for Infospace, which we announced on Friday, August 14. Our team at Infospace remains focused on responding to the rapid changes, while pivoting our strategy to drive growth.

Shares of Blucora are down 12 percent in the past year. The company is now valued at $559 million.

During the second quarter, Blucora CEO Bill Ruckelshaus said that revenues in the search business dropped 35 percent to $52 million when compared to the same period last year.

“Pressures in our Search and Content segment are contributing to overall declines year-on-year,” Ruckelshaus said. “We remain focused on operating our businesses with discipline, managing expenses and allocating capital wisely during this period of transition.”

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