Cibus announces layoffs as part of strategic focus on rice traits

SAN DIEGO - Agricultural technology company Cibus, Inc. (NASDAQ:CBUS), currently valued at $86 million and trading near $1.75, announced a reduction in force on Wednesday as part of implementing its previously disclosed strategy to focus on near-term commercial opportunities. The stock has declined over 80% in the past year, according to InvestingPro data.

The company, which develops plant traits for licensing to seed companies, expects to incur one-time charges of approximately $0.5 million in the third quarter of 2025 related to the layoffs.

According to the press release, Cibus anticipates that the workforce reduction, combined with other initiatives, will reduce its annual net cash usage to approximately $30 million by 2026.

The company is prioritizing its commercial advancement of weed management traits in rice while continuing work on customer-funded sustainable ingredients programs and bio-based fermentation fragrance products.

"The whole Cibus team has made incredible contributions to advance the burgeoning gene edited trait industry," said Dr. Peter Beetham, Co-Founder and Interim CEO of Cibus, in the statement.

Beetham added that despite streamlining operations, he believes the company has "significant opportunities to capitalize on our remaining portfolio of developed and advanced traits through industry partnerships" in areas including disease resistance in canola, winter oilseed rape, and soybean.

Cibus describes itself as a technology company that uses proprietary high-throughput gene editing technology to develop traits, which it then licenses to seed companies in exchange for royalties on seed sales.

The announcement comes as the company focuses on optimizing its Trait Machine gene editing processes for specific commercial applications.

In other recent news, Cibus Inc reported a significant net loss for the first quarter of 2025. Despite this, the company saw its revenue increase to $1 million, a rise from the previous year. The company is advancing its innovation and product development initiatives, which continue to drive up expenses. In a notable regulatory development, Cibus announced that its latest herbicide tolerance trait for canola, HT2, has been designated as "not regulated" by the USDA. This milestone could aid in the company’s expansion efforts both domestically and internationally.

In financial developments, Cibus priced a public offering of approximately 15.7 million shares of Class A Common Stock at $1.75 per share, expected to raise about $27.5 million before fees. This offering includes purchases by institutional and strategic investors, as well as the company’s Chairman of the Board. Canaccord Genuity responded to Cibus’ recent equity raise by lowering the stock price target to $15 from $17.50, while maintaining a Buy rating. The price target adjustment reflects the dilution impact due to the revised share count.

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