Rosetta Stone eliminating 57 positions in Virginia

Published March 12, 2013 by Jessica Sabbath

Language-learning technology company Rosetta Stone Inc. is eliminating almost 60 Virginia-based employees in its products division as it opens two additional U.S. Offices.

The move is part of the company’s plans to reshape its product organization. The layoffs include 48 positions in the firm’s Harrisonburg office, nine jobs in its Arlington headquarters and six in its Boulder, Colo. office.

The company announced Tuesday that it would open two offices in Austin, Texas, and San Francisco to tap the talent pool in these locations.

“We are in the process of transforming Rosetta Stone,” Steve Swad, the company’s President and CEO, said in a statement, “and a critical part of that is investing in our product organization. By opening offices in Austin and San Francisco — hotbeds for technology with deep talent pools — we are attracting some of the country’s best developers and designers to help us strengthen our platforms and bring innovative new products to market.”

Most of the layoffs are associated with Rosetta Stone’s legacy products, according to spokesman Jonathan Mudd. “After 20 years technology has changed a lot and, a majority of positions were associated with legacy products and legacy technologies,” he said.

The two new offices have a combined capacity of 100 positions.

Swad said that Rosetta Stone plans to launch several products in its kids’ learning franchise in the late summer of 2013 and likely would follow with new intermediate and advanced offerings in English.

Rosetta Stone has about 1,500 employees worldwide.