Daily deals specialist LivingSocial is scaling back its operations. The company recently announced plans to shed a fifth of its workforce in preparation for a major restructuring effort according to a report from Re/code.
The Washington, D.C.-based company is letting roughly 400 of its North American employees go. Specifically, LivingSocial is shutting down its southern California sales office - the same office that the company invested heavily in recruiting for earlier this year.
The layoffs shouldn't come as much of a surprise to anyone that's been keeping tabs on the deals site. Early this year, co-founder and CEO Tim O'Shaughnessy revealed intentions to resign once the company had found a suitable replacement. O'Shaughnessy kept his word this past July, stepping down when LivingSocial hired Gautam Thakar.
Thakar is an eBay man, most recently holding the position of general manager of advertising and CEO of the company's Shopping.com website.
After assessing the situation, the executive determined LivingSocial had been trying to pursue too many things at once. What's more, Thakar believed the company needed to accelerate its move away from the daily deals model and instead focus on deals that run continuously.
Thakar expressed interest in new ways to work with Amazon to get back on the right track. The online retail giant owns roughly a third of LivingSocial meaning they certainly have a vested interest in seeing the company pull through this rough stretch.
LivingSocial reported a net loss of $32 million on revenue of $64 million for the third quarter.