Gilt Lays Off 45 Employees

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Flash sale site Gilt Groupe just went through some downsizing as part of the company's goal to become profitable by next year, TechCrunch reports. The company, which hasn't turned a profit in eight years, is laying off 45 employees. Those layoffs include the company's CMO and head of international business, two positions that will be eliminated. Techcrunch estimates the layoffs amount to just under 5% of Gilt's staff.

"While it is always difficult to lose talented people, we are confident the changes we made today position Gilt to be a profitable business in 2016," Gilt SVP of corporate communications Jennifer Miller said in a statement to TechCrunch.

Back in 2011, Gilt reached a $1 billion valuation and was considered the king of flash sale sites. At one point, the site was reportedly hiring a new employee every single day. A TechCrunch source has a much more pessimistic view of Gilt now, telling writer Ingrid Lunden that the site's "traffic has been dwindling since last year." That anonymous source described the layoffs as "streamlining headcount in order to make up for the loss in traffic and revenue."