Early App Store star Evernote is packing up its trunk, leaving the U.S., and is moving to Europe
Note-taking and task management app Evernote is moving its operations out of the U.S. and has laid off most of its stateside employees. The CEO of the company that purchased Evernote last November, Luca Ferrari of Italian app developer Bending Spoons, told SFGate that Evernote's "operations will be transitioned to Europe" because of the "significant boost in operational efficiency that will come as a consequence of centralizing operations in Europe."
Less than six months ago, a round of layoffs saw 129 employees pushed out, and at the time, Bending Spoons said that the company had been "unprofitable for years." At one time, Evernote was considered the best note-taking app available for mobile devices. However, efforts to expand the app's capabilities backfired and there were periods when layoffs took place. Even before then, Google had released a major competitor in Google Keep.
As Evernote floundered, Notion launched in 2018 and other tech giants including Microsoft and Apple improved their own note-taking apps. And it all culminated in today's report about Evernote leaving the U.S. Bending Spoons' Ferrari said, "Our plans for Evernote are as ambitious as ever: Going forward, a growing, dedicated team based in Europe will continue to assume ownership of the Evernote product."
Note-taking app Evernote is moving its operations completely out of the U.S.
The CEO added, "This team will also be in an ideal position to leverage the extensive expertise and strength of the 400-plus workforce at Bending Spoons, many of whom have been working on Evernote full-time since the acquisition." Bending Spoons says that it will give affected employees 16 weeks of salary, a prorated performance bonus, and up to one year of health insurance.
It's been a steep decline for an app whose icon, starring the sideways image of an elephant, became well known in the early days of the App Store. And now that Evernote is moving the company completely out of the U.S., Bending Spoons is hopeful that relocating to Europe can somehow spark a comeback for the app.
Evernote offers a free tier of service, an individual subscription plan for $14.99 per month, and a professional subscription plan for $17.99 per month. You can subscribe to Evernote by directing your browser to Evernote.com or by tapping on this link.
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