It seems that hard times are continuing for struggling e-commerce startup Fab, as a company spokesperson confirmed to Buzzfeed that it will lay of 80 to 90 employees — roughly a third of its current staff — in meetings tomorrow. The news comes as the team has spent the last six months putting together a line of sofas,which launched on Tuesday, in an effort to pivot from flash deals. The past year hasn’t been the greatest for Fab: Once worth roughly $1 billion to investors, the company shed 200 employees over two different layoffs in 2013 and also lost cofounder Bradford Shellhammer.
Anxiety gripped Fab employees on Wednesday after receiving an email from the company’s human resources department department, which was reviewed by BuzzFeed, not to come into the office on Thursday and to await further instructions for one-on-one-meetings. After a year of turmoil filled with layoffs, executive departures and what were seen to be missteps in company culture, it appears that the future of the e-commerce company is once again in doubt. According to two sources inside the company, the remaining staff will be going in to meet on an individual basis to discuss the future of the company. Employees are currently speculating that tomorrow will signal another round of layoffs followed by yet another change of direction, these people said. Many expect to be laid off as the staff is reduced to a small workforce to sell off inventory as it transitions to a new business model, those people said.
