NEW YORK – Ginkgo Bioworks plans to lay off more than a third of its workforce by sometime in 2025, according to a Monday filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
According to the filing, on June 17 the Boston-based synthetic biology firm began implementing its restructuring plan, which will "result in a total reduction of at least 35 percent of the workforce when all impacted employees have departed."
That includes 158 employees based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, who will be laid off at the end of the year, and 35 based in Emeryville, California, who will be laid off in August, according to Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notifications filed with the respective states.
"The aggregate expected costs and overall timing for completion of the restructuring plan is not yet fully known," the firm said in the filing. However, it expects the initial headcount reductions to result in severance and related separation costs of at least $12 million.
Ginkgo announced its plans to restructure in May when it announced first quarter revenues had fallen 53 percent year over year.
The firm said it would provide further details when it releases its second quarter results.
In Tuesday trading on the New York Stock Exchange, shares of Ginkgo closed down 13 percent at $.32.