Adobe Opens New Office Building, Says No Layoffs in 2023

Adobe has put up an additional office building in its hometown, expanding employee capacity and vowing no company-wide job layoffs in 2023.

The newly opened office is an 18-story, 1.25 million square foot glass building named the Founders Tower.

In a statement released by Adobe on Wednesday, Mar. 8, the software developer's newest and fourth office tower can house up to 3,000 workstations for its staff. The firm is still encouraging hybrid and flexible work schedules, despite moving to a new, more comfortable workplace.

"We're actually committed to continuing to grow here. We are committed to not having [company-wide] layoffs," Adobe Chief People Officer Gloria Chen told Bloomberg.

Contrary to the Trend

Adobe seems to be resisting the trend in the tech sector: cutbacks and office closures.

Downsizing office spaces continue to disproportionately affect major cities in the US, which are already reeling from the widespread transition to flexible working. Several major tech companies, including Microsoft, Meta, and Salesforce, have reduced or consolidated their real estate footprints. Construction on Amazon's planned second US headquarters in Arlington, Virginia, reportedly halted last week.

Although Adobe has been quite successful thus far, the demand to reduce expenses remains.

Late last year, the company let off a number of sales-focused workers. Chen has said that going forward, the firm would exercise fiscal restraint in both recruiting and spending. The new office tower has enough room for 3,000 more workers, but the company has made no promises or plans to expand its workforce in order to satisfy that number.

Adobe's stock price increased by less than 1% to $346.29 as of 11:38 AM EST, as per Bloomberg. The share price fell 41% in 2022 and is up 3% so far this year, which is much lower than the 12% rise of the S&P 500 Information Technology Index.

The Workplace Setup

In 2019, before the pandemic, Adobe began planning a new building. While the world stopped in March 2020, the firm opted to keep working through the Covid-19 period. The price tag for building the skyscraper was kept secret by the corporation.

Chen said Adobe hopes to foster a flexible work approach and more attendance in the new location. Each employee is expected to spend half their time in the office and the other half working from home. Chen added that it is up to each manager to decide how and which teams should divide up.

Adobe-Figma Merger

Despite regulatory scrutiny, Adobe is also working to finalize a $20 billion agreement to acquire startup Figma. The planned purchase is a wager on Figma's quick expansion into the market for online design collaboration tools formerly dominated by larger companies.

Figma is a software development company located in San Francisco.