The Bloc 83 building in downtown Raleigh is home to the Raleigh cloud software provider ShareFile.
Nearly 200 workers in downtown Raleigh will lose their jobs in the coming months as the new owner of ShareFile announced layoffs five days after it acquired the local software company.
Massachusetts-based Progress Software Corp. informed the North Carolina Commerce Department on Tuesday it intends to cut 199 positions at ShareFile's main office on Hillsborough Street. These layoffs will be made in phases, Progress said, with most occurring in January or February but continuing through next June.
Federal law requires companies to file WARN Notices at least two months before conducting mass layoffs. Progress submitted its notification on Nov. 5, within a week of purchasing ShareFile from Cloud Software Group for $875 million.
"Progress acquired the ShareFile business from Cloud Software Group because we value the business and culture that they have created," Progress spokesperson Erica McShane said in an email to The News & Observer. "To continue this success and integrate the business into Progress, we had to make some difficult decisions about the go-forward organization, which means not everyone will be able to stay with Progress long-term."
ShareFile has been one the Triangle's more successful startups of the past 20 years. Founded in 2005 by local entrepreneur Jesse Lipson, it provides businesses secure software to manage documents. In 2011, Citrix purchased the company for $54.5 million.
ShareFile continued to grow under its then-parent company. As recently as 2016, Citrix had approximately 800 employees in downtown Raleigh's Warehouse District, most of whom were connected to ShareFile. Since then, however, Citrix diminished its Triangle footprint. The company vacated its Raleigh office in early 2023 and scrapped a 400-worker jobs deal with the state later that year.
By then, Citrix had itself been sold to two private investment firms who placed it (and ShareFile) within a new entity called Cloud Software Group. In September, publicly traded Progress announced it would purchase ShareFile.
ShareFile currently has offices on the seventh floor of a downtown Raleigh tower called Bloc 83. Progress did not state how many ShareFile employees will continue to work at the location after the cuts.