Laid off from Danaher.

What Danaher layoffs have meant for employees

If your paycheck came from Cepheid, Integrated DNA Technologies or Aldevron, Danaher was the parent above it, and the cuts on record at those three went out under their own names. Danaher bought Cepheid in 2016 and Aldevron in 2021, as The Forum noted of the Fargo company, and Masimo became a wholly owned Danaher subsidiary in June 2026 that, by Danaher's completion release, runs as a stand-alone operating company in the Diagnostics segment. That matters if you're looking for a layoff in public records or the news. The operating company's name is the one to look for, whether in a state's WARN list, in our WARN tracker or in local reporting.

At Cepheid, the cuts followed the respiratory business down from its pandemic peak. Danaher expected those sales to fall to $1.7 billion in 2025 from almost $2 billion the year before, MedTech Dive reported, while expecting the rest of Cepheid's business to grow. When Cepheid began consolidating its cartridge work in Lodi in 2024, it also told MedTech Dive there would be additional hiring there. If you were cut in Sunnyvale and could work in Lodi, it may be worth asking whether those jobs are open to you. If you're offered a move to Lodi or another site, it's worth asking in writing about the pay, relocation help and whether turning it down would cost you a severance package. Under Danaher's senior-leader severance plan, a senior leader the plan covered whose position was eliminated lost that plan's severance by turning down the same or a substantially similar job at comparable base salary and target incentive, at the same location or within commuting distance, which the plan set at 35 miles from home or the current commute if that's longer.

IDT described its own December 2025 cut as a restructuring, with a spokesperson telling the Corridor Business Journal the company had made “the intentional decision to restructure parts of our business.” Separately, Rainer Blair said on Danaher's fourth-quarter 2025 call that the parent's own 2025 productivity work had reduced associates. He said he expected the savings from it “to sustain here for the long term.” If you're hoping your job comes back when business picks up, both statements are worth weighing.

Under the merger agreement, Masimo employees on the payroll when the deal took effect have a one-year protection period, counted from that effective time, which runs to around June 2027. In the same agreement, Danaher acknowledged that the deal counts as a change in control under any Masimo benefit plan that uses the term. If you were employed by Masimo when the deal took effect and your job ends during the protection period, it's worth asking to see the Masimo severance schedule the agreement refers to. If you were at Masimo when the deal closed and your offer letter, equity grant or severance terms mention a change in control, those terms are worth reading closely.

Danaher's filed senior-leader plan tied its severance to a signed separation agreement and general release, and paired it with a lump sum covering what the company would have paid toward health, prescription, vision and dental premiums for the severance period. If you're handed a separation agreement, it's worth asking which Danaher severance plan it comes under and for that plan's document by name, along with how long you have to decide. If employer health coverage stops when the job does, how COBRA works lays out the option to keep it, and if you're filing for unemployment after one of these cuts, the state's own rules apply, set out for California, Iowa and North Dakota.

Your stock and equity

Danaher's restricted stock unit agreement form, filed in February 2026, says a legally required notice period, garden leave or paid administrative leave doesn't extend active employment, and unvested units generally terminate on the termination date unless applicable law or the administrator provides otherwise. Death, disability and retirement are treated differently, and on early retirement, units held at least six months keep vesting unless the committee decides otherwise, if the plan's definition of early retirement covers you.

A sourced history of Danaher layoffs

• December 2025, Integrated DNA Technologies layoffs in Iowa

  IDT confirmed layoffs December 9 affecting 4.7% of its Iowa workforce. The WARN notice filed December 12 counted 61 in Coralville, and staff learned the day the cuts took effect, the Corridor Business Journal reported. IDT called its severance and support packages “consistent with company policy.”

• December 2025, Aldevron's second layoff of the year

  Aldevron said it would cut 7% of its workforce, with the largest impact at its Fargo, North Dakota campuses, in what it called “thoughtful adjustments to align with our strategic priorities,” The Forum reported.

• Late 2025, Cepheid notices for more Silicon Valley cuts

  Cepheid was cutting more than 30 jobs across several sites by year's end, the San Francisco Chronicle reported in November, saying the company had been scaling back as demand for its COVID-19 test kits waned and operations consolidated at its Lodi campus.

• 2025, Danaher's restructuring that reduced associates

  Asked on the January 2026 earnings call what the year's restructuring had done to “rooftops or headcount,” chief executive Rainer Blair said Danaher was consolidating rooftops and driving process efficiency, and “that has resulted in reducing associates as well,” according to The Motley Fool’s transcript.

• March 2025, Cepheid notices across 14 California sites

  Cepheid planned to lay off 167 people who worked at or reported to 14 sites, more than half of them buildings at its Sunnyvale headquarters, with the layoffs done by May 12, MedTech Dive reported.

• January 2025, Aldevron cuts 49 jobs, mostly in Fargo

  Aldevron laid off 49 employees, about 5% of its workforce, mostly at its Fargo campuses, The Forum reported when the company announced its next cut that December.

• July 2024, Cepheid moves cartridge production to Lodi

  Notices dated July 24 covered about 626 jobs reporting to Cepheid's Sunnyvale headquarters, mostly manufacturing associates, and about 11 in Fremont. A spokesperson told MedTech Dive all U.S. cartridge manufacturing was being consolidated in Lodi, where some Sunnyvale staff would move, and the notices offered free on-site outplacement.

• April 2023, Cepheid cuts 686 California jobs

  Cepheid laid off 686 people in California that April and disclosed 92 more eliminated positions in the state before the year was out, MedTech Dive reported in 2025.

What to do if you're laid off from Danaher

• File for unemployment in the state where you worked. Benefits run from your filing date, and severance usually doesn't block you. Danaher's biggest hubs: California, Iowa, North Dakota. Somewhere else? Every state is here.
• Apply for financial and hardship assistance. Unemployment supplements income, but food benefits, health coverage and utility help are often available as well. Here's some of what Danaher's hub states run: California, Iowa, North Dakota, and every other state is here.
• Mind the health insurance window. Losing coverage opens a 60-day special enrollment period, and an ACA plan usually beats unsubsidized COBRA. Compare your options before the employer coverage lapses, and read how the COBRA clocks run if you are weighing it seriously.
• Get your real runway number. Severance plus savings divided by reality. The calculator takes five minutes.
• Know which clocks are already running. Severance review windows, COBRA election, visa grace periods, and 401(k) rollovers all run on federal deadlines that started at termination. All five deadlines are here.