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Less than four months after closing a $1 billion merger that nearly doubled its workforce, life sciences equipment developer Standard BioTools Inc. said Thursday it will shed 10% of its jobs as part of a restructuring move to shave $45 million to $50 million in annualized costs.
The South San Francisco company (NASDAQ: LAB) saw its workforce go from 539 to 928 with the early January, all-stock merger with Boulder, Colorado-based SomaLogic. But on Thursday the combined company said it would take "critical and proactive steps" to accelerate its push to profitability, including shutting down a research facility near San Diego.
Among the jobs cuts, Standard said, are certain senior management positions. The job cuts will cost $10 million to $11 million, including about $4 million in non-cash expenses related to vesting of share-based awards.
The cuts are part of a consistent trend in the life sciences space as companies try to extend their cash runways. Several smaller companies over the past couple years have cut jobs, shed real estate and shelved programs, and, more recently, larger players such as Genentech Inc., BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc. and Bristol Myers Squibb Co. as well have announced large job cuts or ditched drug programs.
Those companies are among Standard's list of customers, which also includes academic, government, plant and animal research and clinical laboratories worldwide.
"We will continue to focus on disciplined expense management while staying true to our mission of becoming a diversified leader in life sciences tools and empowering our customers to do better world-changing research," Standard President and CEO Michael Egholm said in a release.
Standard, which will report first-quarter results May 8, last year lost $74.7 million, or 94 cents per share, on revenue of $106.3 million. It had cash, equivalents and short-term investments of $114.6 million at the close of last year, but the merger with SomaLogic put the combined companies' cash at $566 million.
Growing revenue and cutting costs were expected to be Standard's focus after Casdin Capital Management and Viking Global Investors LP teamed up in April 2022 to invest $250 million in Fluidigm Inc., a company focused on microfluidics, or the flow of fluids through tiny channels for DNA analysis, assays and other assays.
Casdin and Viking brought in Egholm, the former chief technology officer at medical equipment maker Danaher Corp., as CEO to execute a strategy to bring good-yet-underperforming research tools under the Standard umbrella.
Standard has significantly reduced research and development in microfluidics, focusing on "high value" niche markets, it has said. It also has discontinued certain products, including its Covid-19 diagnostic offerings.
Standard also had taken advantage of remote work arrangements last year and in 2022 to sublease half its 78,000-square-foot headquarters at 2 Tower Place in South San Francisco.
