grouponGroupon is eliminating 1,100 jobs across the company and exiting business operations in seven countries, part of an “ambitious process of unifying our global technology platforms, tools and processes.”

The daily deals site said it is ceasing operations in Morocco, Panama, The Philippines, Puerto Rico, Taiwan, Thailand and Uruguay. It had previously shut down operations in Greece and Turkey.

“Let’s be clear: these are tough actions to take, especially when we believe we’re stronger than ever. We’re doing all we can to make these transitions as easy as possible, but it’s not easy to lose some great members of the Groupon family,” Chief Operating Officer Rich Williams wrote in a blog post. “Yet just as our business has evolved from a largely hand-managed daily deal site to a true ecommerce technology platform, our operational model has to evolve. Evolution is hard, but it’s a necessary part of our journey. It’s also part of our DNA as a company and is one of the things that will help us realize our vision of creating the daily habit in local commerce.”

In a SEC filing, the company said it plans to take a pre-tax charge of $35 million as part of the cutbacks. Most of the layoffs are occurring in customer service and the international Deal Factory units.

Groupon operates a large development center in Seattle, and we’re reaching out to the company to see if there will be any impact there. Groupon’s shares have fallen 39 percent over the past year, and it now has a market value of $2.7 billion. UPDATE: A Groupon spokesman said that there is no anticipated Seattle impact.

Earlier this year, the Chicago-based company said it had more than 10,000 employees and 48.6 million customers worldwide. It posted revenue of $738.4 million during the second quarter, a three percent increase.

Here’s the full blog post:

Two years ago, we started the ambitious process of unifying our global technology platforms, tools and processes. This One Playbook initiative was designed to help us replace years of technical debt and disparate operations with the products, tools and processes that drive our North American business. Our goal was to set the stage for Groupon’s next chapter–as a global company, with more leverage and efficiency in our core operations, and a stronger platform for growth.

It’s been a huge undertaking, and we still have work to do, but our Operations teams, Engineering teams and many, many others have made amazing progress. Simply put, we are a stronger, faster Groupon today because of this work.

We’re also now in a position to realize the efficiencies we’ve been working so hard to gain, to further improve the way we operate around the world and — most importantly — continue to channel more and more of our resources toward long-term growth. Practically, this means we’re taking some broad restructuring actions to better focus our resources and streamline our international operations.

Over the next several months we will eliminate approximately 1,100 positions, primarily in international Deal Factory and Customer Service. Our teams have done great work to streamline our operations in these and other areas, and our global capabilities and strong regional service centers allow us to do more with less while still providing the high level of service our customers expect and trust.

Alongside this process, we’ve also taken a close, honest look at where we do business. We saw that the investment required to bring our technology, tools and marketplace to every one of our 40+ countries isn’t commensurate with the return at this point. We believe that in order for our geographic footprint to be an even bigger advantage, we need to focus our energy and dollars on fewer countries. So, we decided to exit a number of countries where the required investment and market potential don’t align. You likely saw that we recently exited Greece and Turkey. We are also ceasing operations in Morocco, Panama, The Philippines, Puerto Rico, Taiwan, Thailand and Uruguay.

Let’s be clear: these are tough actions to take, especially when we believe we’re stronger than ever. We’re doing all we can to make these transitions as easy as possible, but it’s not easy to lose some great members of the Groupon family. Yet just as our business has evolved from a largely hand-managed daily deal site to a true ecommerce technology platform, our operational model has to evolve. Evolution is hard, but it’s a necessary part of our journey. It’s also part of our DNA as a company and is one of the things that will help us realize our vision of creating the daily habit in local commerce.

Last, while this is a lot of change, here’s what’s not changing: Our mission to connect local commerce; our commitment to delivering great deals to our customers and real value to our merchants and our belief that Groupon is a unique and amazing place to work.

Thank you for your commitment and your partnership on this journey. We expect the next stage for Groupon will be our best.

 

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