Dive Brief:
- Lightspeed Commerce, a Montreal-based payments software provider, said in a press release Monday that it’s undertaking a reorganization that will impact 200 workers and allow the company to direct the savings toward its strategic priorities.
- The company also said that it’s continuing with a previously announced “review of strategic alternatives” as a part of its quest to jump-start profitable growth.
- “This initiative is designed to prioritize resources for strategic areas of the business, maximizing the Company's long-term growth opportunity, and redefining the organizational structure and operations of other areas of the business,” the company said in the release.
Dive Insight:
There have been reports of a possible acquisition of Lightspeed swirling around the company for months, with the strategic review egging on the speculation.
Last month, analysts at the financial firm William Blair posited in a note to its clients that Lightspeed might be a “good strategic fit” with a U.S. counterpart, Shift4 Payments. Both industry players provide payments processing services and technology to merchants, with varying vertical specialties and different regional strengths.
The company was coy about exactly how the workers will be impacted, with a Lightspeed spokesperson declining to comment beyond the release. “The reorganization will impact approximately 200 individuals, with the resulting savings being redeployed across other areas of Lightspeed's business, in line with the Company's strategic objective of further driving profitable growth,” the release said.
The company had 3,000 employees as of the end of March. The spokesperson declined to specify what type of worker would be affected by the reorganization, or where those to be affected are based.
The spokesperson reiterated Lightspeed’s efforts to center the company’s operations on areas of strength. “Our focus will be in North American Retail and European Hospitality and so the Company’s resources will be prioritized in these markets,” he said by email.
“We believe the restructuring actions that LSPD announced this morning can be viewed as part of a repositioning of the company for sale that began when Dax Dasilva returned as CEO last February following a two-year hiatus,” Benchmark Senior Research Analyst Mark Palmer said by email. In addition to being the CEO, Dasilva is the founder of the company.
Fueling speculation, Lightspeed executives told analysts last month during an earnings report webcast that the company would postpone an investor day it had previously scheduled for Nov. 20.
"Since I returned as CEO, Lightspeed has been working harder to deliver on our profitable growth strategy,” Dasilva said in the release Monday. “Today's announcement reaffirms our commitment to building an organization that can fulfill its true potential."
