Shutterfly lays off workers, moves jobs to Minnesota

Redwood City company shifts focus to school photographs

Online photoprinting company Shutterfly is laying off more than 150 employees from its Redwood City headquarters, according to a state filing this week.

According to a notice the company filed Wednesday with the California Employment Development Department, 66 employees will lose their jobs and 87 workers will see their jobs relocated to an office outside California.

The Minneapolis Star Tribune reported that Shutterfly is moving 100 marketing jobs to the Eden Prairie, Minn., offices of its Lifetouch subsidiary, which Shutterfly acquired in 2018. Lifetouch specializes in school photographs.

Shutterfly spokeswoman Heather Wilson said the company is allowing affected Bay Area employees to move to Minnesota if they choose.

“Since our acquisition of Lifetouch in 2018, we have made progress integrating the teams.” Wilson said in an email. “Additionally, Shutterfly is excited about the strong talent in the Twin Cities market, especially across marketing and merchandising,” she added.

The notices filed with the state are required by state and federal law whenever significant layoffs occur. The filings said the layoffs will take place on or around March 31, though the date in such notices often reflects the period during which severance is paid, not when a worker actually loses his or her job.

The marketing and consumer departments were hit hardest by the layoffs, with engineers and human resources workers, as well as the chief technical officer, also affected.

“Whether an employee whose job is relocating will have an employment loss is dependent on whether the employee accepts Shutterfly’s offer to relocate,” Shutterfly’s notice, required under California law, read.

Apollo Global Management, a privateequity firm, bought Shutterfly in 2019 for $2.7 billion. Founded in 1999, Shutterfly went public in 2006, right before photography shifted to mobile phones and people began sharing photos on social media. The company was briefly led by Ryan O’Hara, who was appointed in June and was replaced in November by Hilary Schneider, the former CEO of Wag, a dogwalking service.

“Shutterfly is excited about the strong talent in the Twin Cities market, especially across marketing and merchandising.”

Heather Wilson, Shutterfly spokeswoman