Retail brokerage company Robin Hood hero is cutting staff, citing “duplicate job roles and functions” after expanding rapidly last year.
CEO Vlad Tenev made the announcement in a blog post Tuesday afternoon. Shares fell more than 4% in extended trading.
The move will affect about 9% of full-time employees. Robinhood reports 3,800 full-time employees as of December 31, so 9% would be about 340 people or more, depending on recent hiring trends.
“We determined that cutting Robinhood’s staff was the right decision to improve efficiency, increase our speed, and ensure that we meet the changing needs of our customers,” Tenev wrote.
“While the decision to take this action was not easy, it was a deliberate step to ensure we can continue to deliver on our strategic goals and advance our mission to democratize finance.” “.
Robinhood is expected to release first-quarter results after the bell on Thursday. The blog post makes no mention of those financial results other than to say that the company has more than $6 billion in cash on its balance sheet.
Robinhood emerged in early 2021 as a major player in the GameStop saga, where retail investors bid on so-called meme stocks.
The brokerage saw a large influx of new customers and cash, and entered the mass market through an IPO in July. However, the stock has gained little traction and has traded below its IPO price of $38 per share for most of its existence. Shares closed at $10 on Tuesday.
The company dropped monthly active users in the fourth quarter, and its first-quarter results will face tough comparisons with the GameStop maze of the first quarter of 2021.
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