Capital One laying off another 1,100-plus employees at former Discover headquarters in Riverwoods

Capital One is laying off another 1,139 employees at the former Discover headquarters in Riverwoods, a second wave of downsizing following the credit card giants’ megamerger last year.

The employees, whose roles span a variety of job titles at Discover Financial Services, were given notice Feb. 23 that their positions were being eliminated. The last day for most of the employees being laid off is May 4, the company said.

“As part of our continued journey to integrate Discover with Capital One, we announced the difficult decision to eliminate some Discover associate roles across the organization,” a Capital One spokesperson said in a statement Thursday.

Capital One filed a WARN notice with the state earlier this week in connection with the latest round of layoffs. Last fall, it notified the state of nearly 600 layoffs at the Riverwoods facility. The total number of employees downsized out of a job in the wake of the merger now stands at 1,748, according to the online filing.

In February 2024, Virginia-based Capital One announced it was buying Discover for $35 billion, merging two of the largest credit card companies, but ending a long run for a Chicago-area corporate headquarters. Capital One completed the acquisition in May.

At the time the deal was announced, there were about 4,000 Discover employees connected to the Riverwoods headquarters.

The Illinois Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act requires businesses with 75 or more employees to provide the state with 60 days’ advance notice of pending plant closures or mass layoffs.

Of the 1,139 employees laid off in February, 532 work at the Riverwoods facility, 69 live in Illinois and work remotely, and 538 work remotely outside the state but report to Riverwoods-based teams, the company said.

No front-line, customer-facing positions were eliminated in the latest round of layoffs, the company said.

“Our focus right now is on fully supporting our colleagues impacted by this change,” the Capital One spokesperson said. “We provided at least 60 days of notice to impacted employees and we are providing comprehensive career transition support, including enhanced severance, benefits, and outplacement resources.”

The Discover card was launched nationally in 1986 by then-owner Sears to compete for consumer wallet space with Visa, Mastercard and American Express.

Capital One intends to continue to offer the Discover credit card alongside its own branded cards, the company said. But the Discover company is now fully integrated into Capital One.

The 1.1 million-square-foot Discover corporate headquarters is located on a bucolic and secluded 25.5-acre lot along Lake Cook Road in Riverwoods. Its designation has been downgraded to a Capital One corporate site, a title it shares with facilities in New York, downtown Chicago, San Francisco, Toronto and several other locations.