Pluralsight’s spacious headquarters building in Draper — opened just five years ago — may soon be available for a new tenant. The company recently announced that it is moving its base to Westlake, Texas, and sending its Utah workforce home to work remotely. Photo courtesy MHTN Architects.
Pluralsight, a Draper-based major player in the tech training industry, has announced a significant “restructuring.” The move involves laying off around 17 percent of its global workforce and relocating its base from its roots in Draper to Westlake, Texas.
“Over the past year, we have been transforming our business to position the company for sustained growth and to enhance the value we provide for our customers,” Pluralsight CEO Erin Gajdalo said in a statement. “As we focus on the growth and sustainability of our business, we determined that a new and rightsized headquarters is in the best interest of Pluralsight.”
The changes reflect a broader trend within the training industry, where companies are seeking more cost-effective environments and re-evaluating their operational footprints in response to economic pressures.
Gajdalo’s statement suggests that the company’s Texas headquarters will be significantly more spartan than its current, posh, 350,000-square-foot, 30-acre Draper home — a building designed to accommodate up to 2,000 employees and featuring a full-service cafe, medical clinic, fitness center and walking paths.
Gajdalo said Pluralsight is not giving up on Utah, where it was founded in 2004 by Aaron Skonnard, Bill Williams, Keith Brown and Fritz Onion.
“To our team members, partners and customers in the Salt Lake area and Utah more broadly, we remain fully committed to serving you with excellence, and we expect our total employee population in the state to remain consistent,” Gajdalo said. “Utah is where Pluralsight was founded more than 20 years ago and we are grateful to the state for the important role it has played in Pluralsight’s history.”
When founded, the company focused on in-person classroom training, but in 2007, it shifted to online video training. Pluralsight went public in 2018, a move that underscored its growth and stability in the tech education space. But it was acquired in 2020 by Vista Equity Partners of Austin, Texas, and delisted from Nasdaq.
Pluralsight’s layoff announcement did not detail how the downsizing might affect the Utah workforce. The company’s nearly 2,400 workers are in locations throughout North America, Europe and Asia. An analysis by AI-focused industry website opentool.ai suggests that all Utah employees will work remotely when the headquarters move is complete and the physical location is closed. Pluralsight has confirmed that severance packages will be offered to those affected by the layoffs. However, the specifics of the packages have not been publicly disclosed.
Late last year, Pluralsight announced an agreement to “recapitalize” the business with a “new investor” group taking control of 100 percent of company stock. The group was led by funds managed by Blue Owl Capital Inc. and included funds managed by Ares Management Corp., Goldman Sachs Asset Management and Oaktree Capital Management LP, among others.
“The recapitalization will strengthen Pluralsight’s balance sheet, significantly reduce outstanding debt and provide over $200 million of capital to accelerate growth initiatives and support long-term strategic goals,” Pluralsight said in announcing the transaction.
Earlier this year, Pluralsight also announced the settlement of a class action lawsuit brought by a group of public employee retirement funds alleging that the company and some executives misled investors about the “size and productivity of Pluralsight’s sales force,” artificially inflating the stock price before and during a secondary public offering, before “disappointing financial results” and the resignation of an executive caused shares to plummet in value by almost 40 percent, according to court documents.
Pluralsight agreed to split a $20 million settlement among attorneys and tens of thousands of investors who purchased stock in 2018 and 2019.
The decision by Pluralsight to restructure and relocate its headquarters from Utah to Texas has sparked a variety of expert opinions regarding its strategic direction and potential outcomes, as reported by opentool.ai. The analysis suggests a greater emphasis on profitability since Pluralsight was acquired by Vista Equity Partners in 2021. Vista’s influence — and that of the new investor group — likely pressured Pluralsight to streamline operations and cut costs in pursuit of financial sustainability.