MutualFundWire.com: Asness Cuts Again

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Thursday, January 9, 2020

Asness Cuts Again

A prominent quant and hedge-fundster-turned-mutual-fundster and his team are preparing another round of cuts.

Clifford Scott Asness
AQR Capital Management
Managing and Founding Principal

Cliff Asness is laying off between five and ten percent of AQR's [profile] staff, according to company estimates cited by Bloomberg, Citywire, the New York Post, and Pensions & Investments. AQR has about 900 people on staff, pre-cuts, so the layoffs amount to between 45 and 90 people.

Yet rumor has it that the cuts may go even deeper.

"We're hearing 15-20 percent of headcount getting chopped," an unnamed AQR source tells the Post.

"This continues to be a challenging time for the asset management industry," Suzanne Escousse, chief marketing officer of AQR, tells Bloomberg. "After conducting our annual review, we made the difficult decision to reduce headcount to balance the size of our workforce with the current needs of our clients." The Greenwich, Connecticut-based liquid alts shop has had a rough couple of years, suffering billions in outflows. They made another round of layoffs a year ago, when the firm had more than 1,000 employees and $226 billion in AUM. Now they have about 900 employees and $186 billion in AUM.

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