Alterian will shut its Chicago office as part of a restructuring plan that began in September, said Adrian Duffield, partner at College Hill, Alterian’s financial PR agency. Alterian employees were notified on Nov. 6 that the shuttering process would begin immediately, he said.
It is not immediately clear how many of Alterian’s Chicago-based employees will lose their jobs as a result of the closure. In April, Crain’s Chicago Business — which listed Alterian’s Chicago office as the 19th best place to work in the city — said the office employed 75 people.
The London-based CRM company’s restructuring follows a poor fiscal 2011. Alterian’s revenue decreased from $53.3 million in the 2010 fiscal year, which ended March 31 of that year, to $52 million in the 2011 fiscal year.
As part of the restructuring plan, Alterian will make “substantial cuts to its operational cost base and initiated reviews of revenue recognition, and goodwill and other intangible assets,” the company said in an Oct. 27 investor statement. The company identified $14.3 million in operating cost cuts.
Part of the cost-savings plan includes reducing the staff from 450 employees worldwide to approximately 260, the company said in the statement. The company would not confirm whether the Chicago office closing is part of this strategy.
In addition to the cost-savings initiative, the company was restructured around three product lines — Campaign Management and Analytics, Social Media & Insight, and Web Content Management, the company said in the Oct. 27 statement to investors. It was also restructured around two territories — Asia Pacific and Central Europe.
Alterian also said it will cut its marketing budget.
Two weeks prior to the transformation statement, Alterian announced the resignation of Michael Talbot, president and cofounder of the company. Research and development director and cofounder Timothy McCarthy also resigned, and non-executive directors Hugh McCartney and Iain Johnston stepped down from the board.
At the time, Guy Millward, Alterian’s group finance director, said the resignations were directly related to what he termed as recent failures, most notably the “late delivery of new products.”
In July, the company named Heath Davies as CEO. Davies replaced David Eldridge, who resigned in April.
