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GoDaddy will lay off 35 Hiawatha employees
Reduction comes as local office plans a move to downtown Cedar Rapids
Emily Andersen
Feb. 13, 2023 2:10 pm, Updated: Feb. 13, 2023 3:35 pm
HIAWATHA — Internet hosting and domain-name registrar business GoDaddy announced last week it will be laying off 8 percent of its global workforce. Those layoffs will affect 35 employees at the company’s Hiawatha office.
A Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act notice filed last week in Iowa shows that the Hiawatha layoffs will be completed by May 1. The company declined to share how many people are currently employed at the local office.
The layoffs are part of an ongoing plan to integrate three of GoDaddy’s other owned brands — Media Temple, Main Street Hub and 123 Reg — into the GoDaddy brand, according to a statement put out by GoDaddy CEO Aman Bhutani.
“During the last year, we worked hard to deliver value for our customers and results for GoDaddy. Despite increasingly challenging macroeconomic conditions, we made progress on our 2022 strategic initiatives and continued our efforts to manage costs effectively. The discipline we embraced was important but, unfortunately, it was not sufficient to avoid the impacts of slower growth in a prolonged, uncertain macroeconomic environment,” Bhutani said in the statement.
Laid-off employees will receive a transition package that includes 12 weeks of paid administrative leave, plus two weeks of severance per year worked (with a minimum of four weeks), as well as extended health care coverage, according to the statement.
GoDaddy announced plans last year to move from its Hiawatha office to a smaller office in downtown Cedar Rapids. Company spokesperson Kristy Nicholas said the office will be moving to the Armstrong Centre at 222 Third Ave. SE in Cedar Rapids sometime this year.
Comments: (319) 398-8328; emily.andersen@thegazette.com