Cree recently had laid off a small number of employees, including at its Durham headquarters, reported Triangle Business Journal.
A Cree spokeswoman described the move had “a limited employment action.”
“We can confirm a small number of Durham employees were affected,” said spokeswoman Laura Griffis in an email.
No details were given about the scope of the layoffs nor the departments involved, but the cuts were responding to “current business conditions.” The company did not list any WARN on the N.C. Department of Commerce website, a required filing for companies that shut down a plant, or cuts 500 jobs, or layoffs more than a third of its local hires.
Cree spent US $169 million on R&D in fiscal year of 2016, and its total revenue for that period peaked to US $1.6 billion, with 55% of revenue generated from its lighting sector. The main reason why Swoboda’s team decided to place emphasis on the lighting segment, while selling its power and radio frequency division, Wolfspeed, to Infineon.
The company will be announcing its first quarter results for fiscal 2017 on Tuesday.