Oregon software company Exterro lays off two-dozen employees after buying Zapproved
Beaverton-based legal technology firm Exterro announced Monday that it has laid off less than 3% of its workforce after acquiring a Portland competitor, Zapproved, earlier this month. Exterro said most of the nearly two dozen layoffs were in the Portland area.
“It’s common for synergies to be discovered and roles to be eliminated in an acquisition,” Bill Piwonka, Exterro’s chief marketing officer, wrote in an email to The Oregonian/OregonLive. He said the merged company is trying to rethink its new product structure and position itself for success.
When Exterro announced the transaction 10 days ago, the company initially said it would retain all 131 Zapproved employees. The combined company would have had approximately 750 employees.
According to Exterro, the cuts on Monday primarily affected Zapproved employees. Taking to social media, Zapproved employees reported job losses in their engineering and product organizations.
Both Exterro and Zapproved make software that helps companies manage their legal affairs. Zapproved’s technology helped businesses track electronic information relevant to court cases and other legal issues, while Exterro offered more services to help businesses comply with regulations, manage their online data, and protect electronic privacy.
But there was some overlap between the two product lines, and the companies were occasional competitors for many years.
Exterro’s cuts are the latest in a string of job losses at Oregon companies and large regional employers this month, with layoffs focused on the tech industry:
- Intel is in the process of laying off employees across the company as it seeks $3 billion in cost savings to offset an acute drop in revenue. The chipmaker has announced it will cut more than 500 jobs in California but hasn’t said how many it will lay off in Oregon, its largest operations center.
- Technology equipment maker Lam Research, one of Oregon’s largest industrial employees, is laying off 7% of its workforce. It hasn’t said how many of its 4,000 regional employees will lose their jobs.
- Vacasa, the Portland vacation home rental company, is laying off 1,300 employees across the company. Only 33 of these are in the Portland area.
- Marijuana giant Curaleaf is closing all of its Oregon operations and laying off 4% of its workforce. The Massachusetts-headquartered company hasn’t said how many will lose their Oregon jobs. The business, manufacturing facilities and cultivation sites are still operational for the time being as Curaleaf searches for a buyer.
- Railcar maker Gunderson is laying off 101 at its North Portland plant as it moves production out of the state. She expects to complete the layoffs in May.
Oregon’s unemployment rate has risen a full percentage point to 4.5% since the summer. But until recently, most of that increase was due to people entering the labor market to look for jobs and people quitting their job without anyone else queuing. The recent wave of layoffs could change that picture.
– Mike Rogoway | [email protected] | 503-294-7699
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