By Joelle Diderich, CNNMoney
Best.com is undergoing a messy internal shakeup after a year-and-a-half-long overhaul.
On Wednesday, Better.com confirmed that its CEO Jennifer Allen had handed in her resignation. The company said a search was under way for a new leader to lead the advertising-targeted e-commerce site.
Earlier this week, Allen’s predecessor, Keith Kinsey, also announced he was stepping down. In a separate email sent to staff, Kinsey wrote that he was stepping down “to pave the way for the next chapter at Better.com.”
Allen had taken the reins in January 2017 after Kinsey replaced Gary Steinberg as CEO.
The resignations come a month after Better.com laid off 900 of its employees, roughly 10% of its staff. Allen and Kinsey were initially among the casualties, though the layoffs were later expanded to 901 people.
The Cut first reported Allen’s departure on Tuesday.
More significantly, the staff reductions led to a $5 million write-down on “assets held for sale,” according to Best.com’s latest 10-Q filing.
The company said it had sold its intellectual property to Bare Escentuals for $3.5 million. While the trademark sale of its patents, which will be used by Bare Escentuals in its own cosmetics business, was approved by Best.com’s board of directors, the divestiture of those patents is subject to standard finality reviews by “conditional parties” which prompted the write-down.
On a conference call with analysts last month, Allen said the layoffs were the start of a “long journey” that would require the company to reduce its labor costs by 20%.
It was Allen’s second straight quarter in the CEO role at Best.com. She previously spent five years as the head of Yahoo’s private investment arm.
The company has made significant shifts in recent years to return to profitability. Better.com’s core online shopping business, currently worth about $1 billion, now accounts for less than half of the company’s revenue, according to PrivCo, which has provided the retail industry with financial data and research.
In the second quarter of this year, the company said its advertising revenue more than doubled, while its online orders increased 15%.