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Theranos Lays Off Almost All of Its Remaining Workers (marketwatch.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the last-gasp-effort dept.

A few months ago, Theranos laid off almost half of its workforce as it struggled to recover from the backlash generated when the company failed to provide accurate results to patients using its proprietary blood test technology. Now, according to people familiar with the matter, the company is laying off most of its remaining workforce in a last-ditch effort to preserve cash and avert or at least delay bankruptcy for a few more months. MarketWatch reports: Tuesday's layoffs take the company's head count from about 125 employees to two dozen or fewer, according to people familiar with the matter. As recently as late 2015, Theranos had about 800 employees. Elizabeth Holmes, the Silicon Valley firm's founder and chief executive officer, announced the layoffs at an all-employee meeting at Theranos's offices in Newark, Calif. on Tuesday, less than a month after settling civil fraud charges with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Under the SEC settlement, Holmes was forced to relinquish her voting control over the company she founded 15 years ago as a 19-year-old Stanford dropout, give back a big chunk of her stock, and pay a $500,000 penalty. She also agreed to be barred from being an officer or director in a public company for 10 years.

17 of 91 comments (clear)

  1. When does she go to jail? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    She lied about everything and committed numerous levels of fraud. She needs to be put on trial immediately.

    1. Re:When does she go to jail? by UnknownSoldier · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Mod parent +1 Interesting.

      Why isn't she going to jail ?

      Does anyone have a link / copy to the SEC settlement ?

    2. Re:When does she go to jail? by GrumpySteen · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Why isn't she going to jail ?

      US law has been written by corporations for decades and virtually nobody ever goes to jail for corporate fraud. The US government handed out billions to banks and bought up all the toxic assets they'd created through the most massive fraud in the history of the nation and only senior figure went to jail (and then only for 2.5 years). And now we're rolling back the minimal regulations that were put in place to prevent that type of fraud so it can happen again.

      Why would you think that it would be any different for the CEO of Theranos? I'm surprised we didn't pay off her debts and buy her a house in the Bahamas.

    3. Re:When does she go to jail? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Because it's a "woman in science/technology", and if they throw her ass in jail, it will send the wrong signal to young, independent, progressive women. It would demoralize them and say "you stupid cunt. You fucking piece of shit bitch. This is why men look down on you, bitch. You can't hack it and you're not as tough or awesome as a man.

    4. Re:When does she go to jail? by boundandgaggedwomen · · Score: 2

      She lied about everything and committed numerous levels of fraud. She needs to be put on trial immediately.

      The cunt belongs in jail.

    5. Re:When does she go to jail? by LynnwoodRooster · · Score: 4, Informative

      Bernie Ebbers. Bernie Madoff. Ken Lay. Martha Stewart. Martin Shkreli. Jeff Skilling. Allen Stanford. Sam Waksal. All CEOs of multi-billion dollar corporations who went to jail for corporate fraud. It's not at all uncommon - and it makes news when it happens because it is fairly uncommon for fraud at the level of Holmes. She got special treatment because she was a young woman in tech - and that is not socially acceptable to penalize her for "breaking into the boys club" even if she did commit fraud at a Worldcom/Enron/Tyco level of fraud.

      --
      Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
    6. Re:When does she go to jail? by Opportunist · · Score: 3, Insightful

      So the message is "if you're a woman, rejoice, your options to get to C-Levels got better. No longer do you have to rely on your looks and your ability to give a good blowjob to get ahead, you can lie, steal, cheat your way to the top of the ladder now, too!"

      Yeah, that's the message I'd want my kids to get.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    7. Re:When does she go to jail? by thomn8r · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Which goes to show that you only go to jail if you defraud other plutocrats; financially sodomizing the public is a lower offense than a parking ticket.

  2. blah, blah, blah by rmdingler · · Score: 5, Insightful

    She will: relinquish voting control, give back a big chunk of her stock, pay a $500k penalty, and agree to be barred from holding an officer or director position with a public company for 10 years.

    A relatively small private contractor would go to jail next Wednesday for a hot check to float the Easter Party.

    --
    Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.

    Ernest Hemingway

    1. Re:blah, blah, blah by sd4f · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I think this is one of those instances where gender politics has really favoured her, and she did more than just fool her investors. Not only has an ignorant media, oblivious to the technicalities, promoted her and gave publicity because she was a 'woman in tech', they're certainly not covering the mess now, when they clearly got it so wrong.

      I think the media that covered her should apologise. In certain sectors, their fervour of covering all things related to culture wars, such as gender and minorities, they promoted and gave publicity to a charlatan.

    2. Re:blah, blah, blah by rmdingler · · Score: 2
      I don't understand that, since we allegedly live in a democracy in which the vast majority of folks are on the poorish side of the economic scale.

      It seems like eating nutritious food whenever you want, and living in better homes built in safer neighborhoods, and driving your kids to better schools in better automobiles would be enough incentive for those inclined toward greater wealth.

      Why do they need the additional Get out of jail free card?

      --
      Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.

      Ernest Hemingway

    3. Re:blah, blah, blah by thesupraman · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Because people are easily led sheep, and have been convinced that these are their betters, and that they should look up to them?
      It also helps that they own all the media, most of the government (if not all, no one who is not owned will get far), and almost most importantly, the entertainment industry.

      This is, I am afraid, the cost of popularist democracy.
      This is also probably why original democracy was NOT popularist democracy, and had a number of features, now long gone, designed to stop this very development.

      We are all busy racing to totalitarianism, with the only real competition being who wants to get there first. Right now the left is showing a more rabid love for it, however the right are playing many of the same games.

    4. Re:blah, blah, blah by rmdingler · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Because people are easily led sheep, and have been convinced that these are their betters, and that they should look up to them? It also helps that they own all the media, most of the government (if not all, no one who is not owned will get far), and almost most importantly, the entertainment industry.

      This is, I am afraid, the cost of popularist democracy. This is also probably why original democracy was NOT popularist democracy, and had a number of features, now long gone, designed to stop this very development.

      We are all busy racing to totalitarianism, with the only real competition being who wants to get there first. Right now the left is showing a more rabid love for it, however the right are playing many of the same games.

      I have begun equating the left and the right with punches that equally contribute to my beat down.

      --
      Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.

      Ernest Hemingway

    5. Re:blah, blah, blah by another_twilight · · Score: 2

      and have been convinced that these are their betters, and that they should look up to them?

      Or that they, too, can be a member of this class if they just work hard enough.
      The lie of social mobility is a large part of what keeps the poor and working classes from demanding more of the upper class/es. Everyone is a temporarily embarrassed millionaire (to misquote/paraphrase Steinbeck).

      As you say, they media is complicit as is the entertainment industry. Bread and circuses.

      This is also probably why original democracy was NOT popularist democracy, and had a number of features, now long gone, designed to stop this very development.

      From what I understand (not from the US), the majority of states only allowed white, male, landowners to vote when the republic was founded - which is kind of plutocratic, albeit with a lower threshold to entry and in a period with greater social mobility. The modern system is most certainly plutocratic, which is leaving the majority increasingly unrepresented, disenfranchised and vulnerable to populism - never mind that it's just exchanging one master for another. Already certain segments of the population have realised that the odds of success are vastly lower than the ideal and have withdrawn from the social contract.

      Right and Left are part of the same ruling class. The US left pander to one segment of society; the right another - but neither are representative of those populations and have grown increasingly complacent about even keeping them marginally happy.

      Power accumulates. Without mechanisms to oppose this and to maintain an equilibrium, you reach a point of imbalance where the system tips and a new equilibrium forms. A populist leader is probably the least disruptive of those, but if you keep forcing the system in one direction, you will end up with increasing crime, civil unrest, violence and revolution or civil war (if history is any guide).

    6. Re:blah, blah, blah by thegarbz · · Score: 2

      they're certainly not covering the mess now, when they clearly got it so wrong.

      Is this the media that isn't covering it?:

      https://www.wsj.com/articles/t...
      https://nypost.com/2018/04/10/...
      http://fortune.com/2018/04/10/...
      https://www.foxbusiness.com/ma...

      I skipped the tech sites which are all covering it too and just quoted sites that actually are more general purpose.

  3. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 2

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  4. Re:What are they DOING? by gweihir · · Score: 2

    They do not have a product. What probably happens here is that Holmes had an idea she though was really great (being an inexperienced student does that to you) and decided to not run it by anybody with an actual clue and instead tried to get rich. Then the media discovered this wondergirl and pushed her as high as they could. At that time, something that would otherwise have faded away quietly and would probably have left her with debt and no finished education, turned into a huge train-wreck because she actually got investors that believed the demented things the media was writing about her.

    In actual reality, nobody this age has made any real scientific breakthroughs in modern times. It takes a decade or longer to even get into a field deep enough to understand what the questions are and that is if you are smart and already have the basics. There was zero chance she could deliver.

    --
    Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.