Struggling EV startup Fisker has laid off hundreds of employees in a bid to stay afloat as it continues to seek funding, be acquired or prepare for bankruptcy.
Employees suspected layoffs were in the offing when the company called on everyone to work from home on Wednesday — an out-of-character directive, according to many current and former employees. The layoffs were announced during a plenary session held Wednesday morning.
Founder and CEO Henrik Fisker told employees that the major investor to whom the company owes money — and the chief restructuring officer working on behalf of the investor — wanted to let more people go, according to employees who attended. Fisker has never disclosed who is ultimately behind the convertible debt investment in question, although Henrik Fisker mentioned Heights Capital Management during Wednesday’s meeting when discussing the layoffs, according to the two employees. Heights Capital Management is a subsidiary of financial services giant Susquehanna International.
One current and one fired employee estimated that only about 150 people remain at the company.
Fisker has already gone through several rounds of layoffs. He announced 15% cuts in February. Fisker employed 1,135 people as of April 19, according to a regulatory filing. Those workforce numbers were cut by an undisclosed amount after another round of layoffs in late April and another series in late May before Wednesday’s cuts.
Fisker did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Restructuring chief John DiDonato also did not immediately respond to a request for comment. DiDonato previously told the California Department of Employment Development on April 29 that she planned to lay off more than 300 workers on June 28 if the company was “unable to meet its operating cash needs,” according to documents obtained by TechCrunch.
Despite the extensive cuts, Henrik Fischer struck a somber but determined tone during the call, sources said. At one point, he noted that the company built “something great” and will continue to sell the one and only EV — the Ocean SUV — to people who want to buy it.
He also suggested that the fired workers would be rehired once the company was back up and running, according to a person who attended the meeting.
Many employees first learned they were fired after losing access to Microsoft services like Teams or Outlook. Later in the day, some employees received an email officially announcing that they were being laid off with a week’s layoff. The fired employees repeated similar details in LinkedIn posts.
These new layoffs come after months of trouble at Fisker and less than a year after the company began full-scale deliveries of the Ocean SUV.
