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- Flexport CEO Ryan Petersen announced on X that the company was rescinding dozens of job offers.
- Some of the new hires were set to start as soon as Monday, the CEO said.
- The rescinded job offers come after Petersen reclaimed his role as CEO on Wednesday.
Flexport CEO Ryan Petersen announced on social media that his logistics company was rescinding dozens of job offers on Friday morning.
Petersen said some of the new hires were set to start as soon as Monday and added that he was confused as to how many new people had been hired during a "hiring freeze."
"I am deeply sorry to those people who were expecting to join our company and won't be able to at this time," Petersen said on X, formerly known as Twitter. "It's messed up. But no way around it, we have had a hiring freeze for months I have no ideas why more than 75 people were signed to join. Or why we had over 200 open roles are on our web site."
—Ryan Petersen (@typesfast) September 8, 2023
The CEO said each person whose job offer had been rescinded would be contacted individually and a "handful" of roles related to core initiatives had not been eliminated.
"I hope you will forgive us someday and even consider coming to work here again once we get our house in order," he wrote on X. "But now would not be a good time to add more people and expenses to the company."
Petersen's comments come after a major shakeup at the company. On Wednesday, former Flexport CEO Dave Clark announced he was leaving the company less than a year after departing from his role as CEO of Amazon's consumer business to join Flexport. And Petersen, Flexport's founder, said he would be reprising his role as CEO of the company. While some outlets reported that Clark had resigned, FreightWaves reported on Thursday that the company's board had dismissed Clark, citing two sources familiar with the decision.
The company also let go of at least six more executives that Clark had brought in, according to The Wall Street Journal. Insider's Eugene Kim and Madeline Stone reported on Thursday that the company told staff during a town hall following Clark's departure that they should expect cost cuts, as well as some possible job cuts.
In a post on X that highlighted an email he'd sent to staff, Petersen also indicated a need for Flexport to cut back on spending.
"It's clear that important changes are needed to sustain our growth and return to profitability," Petersen wrote. "Flexport sits at a crossroad where the choice is either to spend our way out of the current downturn in global logistics or pursue a path that gets us back to profitability quickly. The board and I agree that operational excellence and profitability in the near-term is the right path."
Earlier this year, Flexport laid off 20% of its workforce, as the company continued to address an economic downturn and lower freight volume.
Petersen, Clark, and a spokesperson for Flexport did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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