C.H. Robinson spent four years showing Wall Street it could move more freight with fewer people, and on Monday it agreed to buy more employees than it shed. Its workforce peaked at 17,399 in 2022 and stood at 11,855 at the end of last year, a drop of about 5,500 as AI agents took over work like quoting, load tracking and appointment scheduling.
RXO, the rival it is buying for $5.8 billion, had 6,906 regular employees at the end of 2025. Using year-end figures, the combined company would employ more people than C.H. Robinson did at its peak.
The target is not an obvious prize. RXO lost $100 million last year and $290 million the year before, and a dollar invested at its 2022 spinoff from XPO was worth about 66 cents by the end of 2025. C.H. Robinson is paying $30.25 a share, 29 percent above Friday's close, with 57 percent of the consideration in cash raised from new debt — and it will pause share buybacks until that debt comes down.
What makes the price work for this particular buyer is the $300 million in annual cost savings it expects within two years of closing, by applying what its announcement calls its "Lean AI operating model" to RXO. For most acquirers, a money-losing broker with a large staff is a problem. For a company whose margins come from needing fewer people per shipment, it looks more like raw material, which suggests the same business is worth more in its hands than in almost anyone else's.
Except the shrinking was quieter than the numbers make it sound. Chief executive Dave Bozeman has said turnover runs 11 to 14 percent a year, and that the agents let the company skip hiring replacements. The savings list in the deal announcement also leans on shared services and outside vendors, not only payroll. And investors were not persuaded: C.H. Robinson's shares sank about 10 percent in early trading Monday while RXO's jumped 23.
RXO's chief executive, Drew Wilkerson, held sales and operations jobs at C.H. Robinson before joining XPO in 2012. If the deal closes, the company he left will own the company he runs — and it now hands a good share of that kind of work to software.
For most acquirers, a money-losing broker with a large staff is a problem.
