Updated Telecom-IT Layoff Tracker September 2023: Cisco, Ingram Micro, Trellix, T-Mobile, More
The volume of layoffs is slowing down from the beginning of the year but remains significant.
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Zebra Technologies reportedly is making plans to shed 700 workers, many of them older employees. The news made headlines in late August.
That’s according to the Chcago Sun-Times. It said Zebra Technologies will reduce its global employee headcount by 7% via buyouts, or what it called a “voluntary retirement plan.” In its 2022 annual report, Zebra said it had 10,500 workers.
Zebra Technologies sent us the following statement:
“Zebra has a track record of judiciously managing our operating expenses and investments with a long-term view. Our disciplined approach has enabled our long history of success, preparing us to succeed in challenging times. While we are facing [a] difficult and uncertain business environment, we believe these actions are needed to reprioritize and invest in parts of our business that will strengthen our business for the long run.”
Slalom layoffs, which made headlines in early September, are hitting more than 900 of the consulting company’s workers as part of a restructuring.
Brad Jackson, Slalom’s CEO, announced the layoffs in a LinkedIn post. Slalom grew from a “small 100-person company with big dreams in 2001 to a 13,000-team-member global services company.”
“After extensively exploring and debating every option possible with our senior leaders, executive committee and board of directors on how to best position our company during this time of significant shifts within our industry and to plan for the future, we have made the painful decision to restructure Slalom.,” he said. “This will result in approximately 7% of our team members leaving the company.”
T-Mobile layoffs, announced in August, will impact 7% of its U.S. workforce over five weeks, according to an announcement from the company’s CEO.
Mike Sievert, CEO of the magenta “un-carrier,” in August filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) a letter he sent to T-Mobile employees. In that letter, Sievert writes that the Washington state-based company will cut almost 5,000 jobs, with a focus on corporate and back office.
Cuts will also include “some technology roles,” Sievert said. On the other hand, retail and consumer care personnel will see no impact.
New Secureworks layoffs are impacting 15%, or 322, of the company’s workers as part of a streamlining effort.
Secureworks announced the layoffs in August in a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing. CEO Wendy Thomas also announced the layoffs in a letter to employees.
The Atlanta-based company has 2,149 employees.
Those impacted by the Secureworks layoffs are in the United States and United Kingdom, Japan, India, Australia, Romania and EMEA.
This is the second round of Secureworks layoffs this year. In February, it confirmed layoffs impacting 9% of its workforce or more than 200 employees.
Almost 500 people will be impacted by Rapid7 layoffs as the network security provider seeks to increase its profit.
The cybersecurity provider in August filed a disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to outline a restructuring plan. It will reduce its headcount by approximately 18%. Considering that Rapid7 reported 2,623 full-time employees in its latest annual report, cutting 18% amounts to approximately 470 people.
In the meantime, Rapid7 leadership say they see strong results with channel partners and intend to “lean heavily” into the MSP community.
HackerOne layoffs are impacting about 12% of its workforce due to how the volatile economy is impacting it and its customers.
HackerOne CEO Marten Mickos announced the layoffs in August in an email to employees. HackerOne is a bug bounty and penetration testing platform. Its workforce totals more than 450, meaning more than 50 are part of the layoffs.
The HackerOne layoffs are impacting workers in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and other countries.
“HackerOne, like many tech companies, has been navigating the global economic situation and the resulting shifts in our market,” Mickos said. “Our strategic plan includes investment in new product families and expanding the capabilities of our platform to expand into the enterprise. A little over a year ago, I authorized the continued hiring of new employees to fulfill this strategy. However, we did not anticipate the degree to which the overall economic situation is affecting us, with smaller companies running out of money and larger ones taking longer to make purchasing decisions. The new products we brought to market didn’t perform the way we wanted them to. Our bets on hiring and new products proved to be too big, and we must now restructure our teams to be successful in the future.”
British mobile network operator Virgin Media O2 will cut up to 2,000 jobs by the end of this year. This equates to 12% of its total United Kingdom workforce.
The company issued redundancy notices to some staff in July, the Telegraph reported in July.
A spokesperson said the Virgin Media O2 layoffs come down down to the company’s transformation plans.
“We are currently consulting on proposals to simplify our operating model to better deliver for customers, which will see a reduction in some roles this year,” they said.
News of Cisco layoffs trickled out of social media and online forums in July as the IT company seeks to move resources to priority areas of its business.
Cisco officials confirmed to Channel Futures that layoffs have taken place, although they noted that the cuts tie back to the restructuring plan the vendor announced almost a year ago. Official sources have not confirmed the scale or scope of the layoffs, and the number of employees impacted would appear to fall below the thresholds for a mandated SEC filing.
Notably, Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure (ACI), data center and collaboration/Webex units have seen an impact. Posters on Blind and TheLayoff.com reported plans by Cisco to “dissolve” its Customer Experience Center in Raleigh, North Carolina, and move jobs to Cisco’s San Jose Customer Experience Center. Other units listed on Blind include Cisco Security Business Group and Cisco Servers. A director in Cisco’s Security Business Group wrote on LinkedIn that she and 10 teammates are losing their jobs.
Early this year, Cisco targeted more than 670 employees with layoffs in California.
The IT giant disclosed the job cuts in Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) notices with the California Employment Development Department. It’s cutting 371 workers in San Jose, 222 workers in Milpitas and 80 in San Francisco.
In July, we reported Ingram Micro layoffs that could send hundreds of employees packing,
Ingram Micro confirmed the layoffs, citing local and global market conditions. The company refused to provide details outside of a short statement:
“Ingram Micro did announce some changes to the team. These were made as a result of changing global and local market conditions, and we realize these changes are significant to those impacted,” an Ingram Micro spokesperson told Channel Futures. “We will continue to invest in developing our teams to adapt to market opportunities and provide the best experience to our channel partners.”
In July, we reported Trellix layoffs are impacting an undisclosed number of employees while at least two high-level executives, including chief revenue officer Adam Philpott, have left the company.
In addition to Philpott, Amol Mathur, senior vice president of product management and marketing, and at least one other top executive have departed. According to their LinkedIn pages, Philpott and Mathur left Trellix last month.
Displaced employees posted LinkedIn messages about the Trellix layoffs. Patrick McEnany, former director of information security governance and assurance, was among those pink-slipped.
“My official watch has ended today with Trellix after 20-plus years of service,” he said on LinkedIn. “I was impacted in today’s layoffs, after transitioning through six company transformations from Foundstone to McAfee Inc., Intel Security, and back to McAfee LLC, McAfee Enterprise, and finally Musarubra to Trellix. It has been one hell of a crazy ride and chapter in my career. I have made many new friends along this journey and helped mentor, coach and promote dozens of employees to build their own paths in the cybersecurity industry. I look forward to some vacation time, since I am officially a free agent and open to finding a new company to help build my next 20-year chapter with.”
New Relic layoffs impacted over 200 employees globally, including some channel-related roles, as part of a restructuring plan.
Bill Staples, New Relic’s CEO, announced the layoffs in a blog in June. According to a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing, the restructuring plan expected a reduction of the company’s workforce by up to 255 employees, including employees who previously exited in May and early in June as part of the reorganization of specific functions and performance management.
Staples said the New Relic layoffs will impact 155 employees in the United States and up to 57 internationally.
Anaplan layoffs reportedly hit about 300 workers at the company’s U.S. and UK offices. We reported the layoffs in June.
According to The Information, which cited people familiar with the matter, the layoffs were discussed with employees at a meeting led by CEO Charlie Gottdiener and chief people officer Carey Pellock.
In June 2022, Thoma Bravo completed its acquisition of Anaplan, taking the company private. The company was worth about $10.7 billion, and Thoma Bravo’s offer represented a 45% premium over Anaplan’s value at the time.
Sumo Logic cut nearly 80 workers in June after the completion of its acquisition by global investment firm Francisco Partners.
Sumo Logic submitted a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) notice with the California Employment Development Department. According to The Information, CEO Joe Kim announced the layoffs via email to staff.
The layoffs took place at Sumo Logic’s headquarters in Redwood City, California. Engineering and channel sales employees were impacted by the layoffs.
Displaced workers took to LinkedIn to start their search for new jobs. Among them was Zack Reed, enterprise sales engineering manager.
“While the ending was abrupt, I’m grateful for my time working there and having the chance to lead a genuinely world-class group of SEs,” he said.
In June, HashiCorp announced it is cutting its workforce by 8% or around 190 employees.
HashiCorp announced the job cuts with its financial results for the first quarter of its fiscal 2024. Its revenue totaled $138 million for the quarter, up 37% from $101 million in the same period last year. It reported a $53.3 million net loss for the quarter, compared to a $78.2 million net loss for the year-ago quarter.
“We are responding to the current customer and economic environment with proactive actions to lower our ongoing costs,” said Dave McJannet, HashiCorp’s CEO. “This was a difficult decision that we don’t take lightly, and I am deeply disappointed to lose many valued colleagues. I believe, however, that after these actions we are better positioned for our opportunity.”
Zendesk layoffs are impacting 8% of the company’s workforce, or about 320 of more than 4,000 employees across the globe.
In May, Zendesk CEO Tom Eggemeier sent a note to employees about the layoffs.
Eggemeier said from 2020-2022, Zendesk’s hiring outpaced its business realities.
“When I joined at the end of November, I’d hoped a combination of improving macroeconomic conditions and streamlining costs would help us avoid this moment,” he said. “Unfortunately, macroeconomic conditions have not improved and we find ourselves in an increasingly competitive marketplace.”
At the same time, Zendesk customers are navigating massive shifts in how they do business, including increased pressure to deliver profitable growth and leveraging fast-advancing technology like generative artificial intelligence (AI), Eggemeier said.
In May, BT announced layoffs impacting up to 55,000 of the communications services provider’s workforce over the next five to seven years.
The UK-based company announced the job cuts with its earnings for its fiscal year 2023, which ended March 31. Plans are to reduce the company’s total workforce from 130,000 to somewhere between 75,000 and 90,000 sometime between fiscal years 2028 and 2030.
“By continuing to build and connect like fury, digitize the way we work and simplify our structure, by the end of the 2020s BT Group will rely on a much smaller workforce and a significantly reduced cost base,” said Philip Jansen, BT’s CEO. “[The] new BT Group will be a leaner business with a brighter future.”
The BT layoffs will impact both workers directly employed by BT and non-employees supplied by a third party.
In May, Vodafone announced layoffs impacting 11,000 workers over the next three years as its new CEO said the company’s performance “has not been good enough.”
The job cuts are part of a new road map for the UK wireless carrier, following a strategic review conducted over the last five months. CEO Margherita Della Valle said the end result will be a “leaner and simpler organization, to increase our commercial agility and free up resources.”
The Vodafone layoffs will occur both at its headquarters and local markets. Vodafone employs 104,000 people globally, according to its latest annual report.
In May, Akamai layoffs impacted nearly 300 workers as the company focuses on its highest growth areas and sustaining profitability.
The Akamai layoffs were reported as part of the company’s financial results for the first quarter that ended March 31. According to the Boston Globe, nearly 300 workers are losing their jobs.
Akamai sent us the following statement:
“In order to concentrate our investments and resources in our highest growth areas of security and cloud computing, and to sustain our profitability targets during this challenging macroeconomic environment, Akamai has implemented a reduction of a little less than 3% of its workforce across the globe. We are not providing geographic nor organization-specific details of the workforce reduction, but can confirm that less than 3% of our workforce globally was impacted.”
In April, Dropbox layoffs hit about 16% of the company’s global workforce despite its continuing profitability. The layoffs began immediately.
Dropbox co-founder and CEO Drew Houston announced the cuts in a blog.
“First, while our business is profitable, our growth has been slowing,” Houston said. “Part of this is due to the natural maturation of our existing businesses, but more recently, headwinds from the economic downturn have put pressure on our customers and, in turn, on our business. As a result, some investments that used to deliver positive returns are no longer sustainable.”
Secondly, and more consequentially, the artificial intelligence (AI) era of computing has finally arrived, he said.
“We’ve believed for many years that AI will give us new superpowers and completely transform knowledge work,” Houston said. “And we’ve been building towards this future for a long time, as this year’s product pipeline will demonstrate.”
In April, layoffs hit open-source software developer Red Hat.
Matt Hicks, who has served as the company’s president and CEO for less than a year, sent a company-wide email announcing the Red Hat layoffs.
“There have been several occasions where we’ve had to make tough decisions at Red Hat, but no decision has been harder than the one I must communicate to you today,” Hicks wrote.
With that, he announced that Red Hat is shedding 4% of its workforce. That amounts to about 760 people.
Most of the losses occurred in the general and administrative category throughout the company.
In April, CDW layoffs reportedly displaced hundreds of workers after the company’s CEO said its first quarter was “a period of intensifying economic uncertainty.”
Employees posted about the CDW layoffs on TheLayoff.com. One worker said the CDW layoffs impacted 600-700 workers globally.
“I’m not sure who made the decision on who to lay off, but I can say with certainty that they made several major mistakes,” one worker said. “We lost some excellent folks today whose absence will be felt, that’s for sure. It feels like sometimes the management can’t see the forest for the trees.”
In April, F5 layoffs impacted 9% of the multicloud application services and security company’s workforce, or about 620 workers.
“It was a joke they did this on my day off and I had no clue until I got a email to my personal email saying I was canned and had until 6 p.m. to claim my stuff followed by 30 minutes later cutting me off from the network after the meeting seven hours before what’s stated in the email,” one worker posted on TheLayoff.com. “Put almost 10 years into this job to not even have the respect to let me know I was let go.”
The layoffs were announced with the company’s earnings for the second quarter of fiscal 2023.
Rackspace in March confirmed it’s shedding 275 employees, citing the ongoing macroeconomic downturn.
“During this uncertain time, it is important that we align our cost structure to the demands of the business,” a spokesperson told Channel Futures via email. “This requires some elimination of roles across the company, which was communicated to ‘Rackers’ last week. These reductions represent less than 4% of our global workforce.”
In a March 24 email obtained by The Register, Rackspace CEO Amar Maletira told employees the company had reached a point where it needed to make a decision. Despite cutting costs – including implementing a hiring freeze, delaying bonuses and holding discretionary spending – the MSP continued to struggle.
“As I have said before, we are facing an uncertain macro environment,” Maletira wrote. “From inflationary pressures, high interest rates to the ongoing war in Ukraine and persisting supply chain issues — all signs are pointing to a recession.”
As a result, the San Antonio-based company “eliminated some roles across the company,” Maletira said.
Kyndryl, which spun off from IBM in late 2021, initiated layoffs impacting a “small percentage” of its 90,000 employees globally.
The layoffs began in late March. Kyndryl sent us the following statement:
“We are eliminating some roles globally – a small percentage – to become more efficient and competitive. This is in addition to the ongoing transformation work we have undertaken to streamline and simplify our processes and systems. These actions will enable us to focus our investments in areas that directly benefit our customers and position Kyndryl for profitable growth.”
Accenture in March confirmed layoffs impacting 19,000 workers, or 2.5% of its global workforce to reduce costs.
Accenture announced the layoffs in its latest quarterly report with the SEC. The professional services company said its workforce grew by 39,000 over the past year.
“While we continue to hire, especially to support our strategic growth priorities, during the second quarter of fiscal 2023, we initiated actions to streamline our operations and transform our non-billable corporate functions to reduce costs,” it said.
The layoffs will take place over the next year-and-a-half. More than one-half of the workers are in non-billable corporate functions.
Veeam in March confirmed layoffs impacting 200 workers as part of a shift in investing to increase efficiency.
Veeam sent us the following statement:
“We have reduced our global workforce by 200 people. During this transition, our priority is helping our people, both those affected by this decision and those who remain with Veeam, with the best care and support possible. We are a strong, profitable, fast-growing company. However from time to time, we must make decisions about where we should invest and how we can drive efficiency in the way we go to market. These decisions are wholly based on our priorities and do not reflect the work of those impacted. Veeam continues to hire for roles in R&D.”
Microsoft job cuts continued in March with the latest round impacting 559 workers in and around Seattle.
That’s according to a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) notice filed with the Washington State Employment Security Department.
The latest layoffs bring the total of Seattle-area cuts to 2,743, or more than one-quarter of the 10,000 cuts announced earlier this year, according to the Seattle Times. The cuts reportedly targeted Microsoft’s security operations.
Microsoft sent us the following statement:
“These workforce reductions are part of the effort to align our cost structure with our revenue that was announced in January via the Official Microsoft Blog, which is our official statement.”
Amazon in March confirmed more layoffs impacting 9,000 workers, including many in Amazon Web Services (AWS). The internet giant in January initiated layoffs impacting 18,000 employees.
In addition, more layoffs are likely as Amazon continues its workforce analysis.
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy detailed the latest layoffs in a message to Amazon employees. They are impacting AWS, the People eXperience and Technology (PXT) group, advertising, and its Twitch live streaming service. The layoffs are ongoing.
Australian software company Atlassian announced a round of layoffs affecting 5% of its workforce, or about 500 employees, according to a blog by the company’s CEOs.
The teams impacted include talent acquisition, program management, and research and insights, among others.
“We want to be clear these decisions are not a reflection of our teammates’ work. Every single person has made contributions that have changed our company for the better and will leave a lasting impact on their peers and teams,” CEOs Michael Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar said. “This is about rebalancing the roles we need across Atlassian first and foremost.”
Cloud security company Zscaler in March confirmed layoffs impacting 3% of its global workforce. That’s approximately 150 employees.
Zscaler announced the layoffs in an SEC filing. The cuts are part of Zscaler’s “planned efforts to streamline operations and to align people, roles and projects to the company’s strategic priorities.”
The company expects to complete the layoffs by the end of July. The company’s workforce is nearly 5,000 employees.
In March, Wipro confirmed layoffs impacting 120 workers in Tampa, Florida, citing a lack of work.
The Wipro layoffs are detailed in a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) notice filed with the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity. The cuts are at one location in Tampa.
More than 100 of the impacted employees are processing agents. The rest are team leaders and a team manager.
Wipro sent us the following statement:
“Wipro has reduced headcount in Tampa due to a realignment of business needs. This is an isolated incident. Wipro remains deeply committed to the region. And all other Wipro employees serving clients in the Tampa area remain unaffected.”
Wipro provides IT, consulting and business process services.
Zoom is cutting 15% of its workforce, or 1,300 employees, as part of a “reset” to weather the current economic environment.
Zoom CEO Eric Yuan announced the layoffs in a blog. He’s also reducing his salary for the coming fiscal year by 98% and foregoing his fiscal year 2023 corporate bonus.
Each organization across Zoom will be impacted by the layoffs.
“We worked tirelessly and made Zoom better for our customers and users,” Yuan said. “But we also made mistakes. We didn’t take as much time as we should have to thoroughly analyze our teams or assess if we were growing sustainably, toward the highest priorities. As the world transitions to life post-pandemic, we are seeing that people and businesses continue to rely on Zoom. But the uncertainty of the global economy, and its effect on our customers, means we need to take a hard – yet important – look inward to reset ourselves so we can weather the economic environment, deliver for our customers and achieve Zoom’s long-term vision.”
Dell Technologies began its new fiscal year by announcing that it will lay off 5% of its workforce. Employees learned of the looming layoffs in an announcement posted by co-COO Jeff Clarke.
Dell had 133,000 employees in 2022, according to Statista, suggesting that Dell will reduce layoff 6,650 people.
According to Clark, market conditions continue to “erode” with an uncertain timeframe for when they will improve.
In February, Microsoft-owned GitHub initiated layoffs impacting 10% of its workforce and is also going fully remote.
TechCrunch reported the layoffs and said GitHub had about 3,000 employees, meaning the layoffs are impacting about 300 workers. The company is also closing all of its offices as their leases end. The layoffs will continue through the next several months.
GitHub is a software development platform. Microsoft acquired GitHub in 2018 for $7.5 billion.
“We announced a number of difficult but necessary decisions and budgetary realignments to both protect the health of our business in the short term and grant us the capacity to invest in our long-term strategy moving forward,” a GitHub spokesperson told the publication.
In February, Twilio said it’s cutting 17% of its workforce — that’s about 1,500 employees. CNBC reports that number is based on the roughly 9,000 employees who worked for the company as of September of last year.
Jeff Lawson, Twilio co-founder and CEO, sent an email to employees explaining the layoffs. The company needed significant structural changes and had to “spend less, streamline and become more efficient.”
Lawson also said that the communications division of the company had “gotten too big.” It’s a significant reason Twilio is letting go of some of its employees.
To further cut costs, the company will close several Twilio offices over the next few months. It will redirect funds to travel to increase employee interaction in an era of remote work.
In February, Observe AI initiated a round of layoffs that significantly affected its channel organization. According to sources close to Channel Futures, Jon Heaps, who served as vice president of channels at Observe AI, resigned. Heaps is a longtime leader within the channel community.
“This could impact partners’ ability to sell,” one source told us.
Channel Futures could not verify the number of laid-off employees. Nor could we confirm the degree of workforce reduction within the company’s channel organization.
DocuSign initiated layoffs impacting 10% of its workforce or about 700 employees.
DocuSign announced the layoffs in an SEC filing. According to CNBC, the E-signature software company had 7,461 employees in January 2022. That was before layoffs last September that impacted 9% of its workforce.
The latest DocuSign layoffs are part of a restructuring plan “designed to support the company’s growth, scale and profitability objectives.”
The layoffs are taking place in DocuSign‘s worldwide field organization.
DocuSign sent us the following statement:
“This action allows us to reshape the company to more effectively position us for profitable growth, while freeing up resources for investments. We remain confident in the long-term strength of our team and our business.”
In February, DigitalOcean revealed its latest quarterly earnings and, at the same time, announced job cuts impacting 11% of its workforce.
In a Feb. 16 press release, DigitalOcean said its board of directors approved a restructuring plan that included the layoffs. The strategy aims to adjust the firm’s cost structure and help it free up cash. As such, New York-based DigitalOcean let go of about 200 employees. Impacted roles include account executives, video producers, software and other engineers, recruiters, managers and network developers.
Ericsson shed 1,400 of its jobs in Sweden as part of an agreement reached with trade unions in that country. The company plans to reduce headcount through a voluntary program, reports Telecoms.com, a publication owned by Channel Futures’ parent company Informa.
The job cuts account for 10% of Ericsson’s employee base in Sweden. It’s part of efforts to reduce costs by about $861 million by the end of 2023. The organization also plans to minimize the number of consultants, streamline processes and reduce facilities.
“Reducing headcount is never easy, and we will manage this with the utmost respect and professionalism,” a spokesperson for the company said. “Further details are always communicated to the relevant staff first.”
Ericsson, which has more than 100,000 employees, is likely to cut thousands of jobs in additional countries in the days ahead, according to Reuters.
Salesforce kicked off 2023 by announcing it is cutting nearly 7,500 jobs. CEO Marc Benioff said the macroeconomic environment remains challenging and its customers are taking a more measured approach to their purchasing decisions.
“With this in mind, we’ve made the very difficult decision to reduce our workforce by about 10%, mostly over the coming weeks,” he said.
The news didn’t come as a complete surprise. In December, Salesforce told its managers to identify employees who weren’t performing so well. And that instruction arose a couple months after a previous round of layoffs that took place in October.
In February, we learned from sources that cloud contact center provider Talkdesk is cutting somewhere between 100 and 200 of its 2,000 employees in 19 countries.
The company didn’t respond to our queries about a specific number.
One source said Talkdesk did not provide a reason for the reduction in headcount.
A number of former workers took to LinkedIn, mostly to express disappointment but also gratitude for their time at the company.
In February, Splunk initiated layoffs impacting approximately 325 employees, or 4% of its global workforce starting at the beginning of its 2024 fiscal year. Most of the cuts at the enterprise software provider will impact employees in North America.
The company is taking a broader set of proactive organizational and strategic changes. These include optimizing processes, cost structure and how the company operates globally. This is to ensure that the organization continues to balance growth with profitability through uncertain times, the company said.
It will also reduce the use of external agencies and consultants in its cost-cutting measures.
In January, RingCentral conducted another round of layoffs, which one source told Channel Futures was part of an effort to “tidy up the books” in anticipation of acquiring 8×8.
Late last year, another unnamed source told Investing.com that RingCentral was working with an investment bank to evaluate a potential deal with 8×8.
Individuals across many departments were affected by the layoffs, and our source reported that about 30 jobs were eliminated.
Employees have said this was the fourth round of layoffs in recent months. In November, RingCentral reduced 10% of its staff.
8×8 layoffs will impact 7% of the company’s global workforce in coming months. MarketWatch last month reported that it’s part of a restructuring to refocus the cloud communication provider’s target market and to cut costs. Approximately 2,200 employees work at 8×8, and the cuts will affect about 155 employees.
There’s speculation these layoffs could be part of an effort to ready 8×8 for acquisition.
Moreover, the cuts are impacting channel managers and directors, as well as direct SMB salespeople. Vice presidents are also affected by the reduction. An industry insider told Channel Futures that 8×8 laid off nearly its entire channel staff.
TBI has cut workers in conjunction with AppDirect’s purchase of the technology services distributor.
Dozens of layoffs have already taken place at TBI, with many occurring this week. Sources close to the matter indicated that at least 58 positions have been eliminated, with potentially more on the way. Many former employees have already posted about their job cuts.
When asked how AppDirect is handling duplicate roles, chief operating officer Renée Bergeron told Channel Futures that AppDirect’s “tremendous growth base” will keep the company from having to choose in many cases.
Sophos confirmed job cuts impacting 10% of its global workforce amid a “challenging and uncertain” macro environment.
According to TechCrunch, Sophos is letting go of 450 employees. Thoma Bravo acquired the U.K.-based company for nearly $4 billion in March 2020.
“This is difficult news for the entire Sophos organization,” Sophos said in an email when asked about the job cuts. “We are especially sorry to those who will be leaving.”
Sophos said it’s taking these steps for two main reasons. The first is to ensure it achieves the “optimal balance of growth and profitability” to support its long-term success. This is particularly important “in the midst of a challenging and uncertain macro environment.”
The second is to allocate its investments to be a “market leader in delivering cybersecurity as a service.”
In early January, Cloud Software Group (CSG) confirmed layoffs impacting 15% of its workforce, including Citrix and Tibco.
Tom Krause, CSG’s CEO, announced the Citrix and Tibco layoffs in a blog. CSG notified roughly 15% of the Citrix and Tibco workforce that their roles were eliminated or redundant as part of its planning process for the new company.
Last fall, Vista Equity Partners and Evergreen Coast Capital completed their $16.5 billion acquisition of Citrix and combined it with Tibco, creating CSG.
IBM is cutting 3,900 employees despite reporting revenues that beat Wall Street expectations.
The layoffs are planned between January and the end of March, and stem from IBM’s spinoff of Kyndryl and Watson Health.
“Looking back on the year, we are pleased with the progress we made,” chairman and CEO Arvind Krishna said. “We delivered revenue growth above our mid-single digit model, and we delivered free cash flow. I’ll acknowledge there is more to do this year. We will unlock more productivity, expand the strategic partnerships and put more investments in specific growth markets.”
IBM forecasts that 2023 revenue growth will remain in the single-digit range with $10.5 billion in free cash flow.
“Our strategy continues to strongly resonate with clients and partners,” Krishna said, regarding IBM’s emphasis on AI and hybrid cloud.
Google announced layoffs impacting 12,000 workers after a “review across product areas and functions.” The number amounts to 6% of its workforce.
Alphabet and Google CEO Sundar Pichai detailed the layoffs in an email sent to employees.
“Over the past two years, we’ve seen periods of dramatic growth,” he said. “To match and fuel that growth, we hired for a different economic reality than the one we face today. I am confident about the huge opportunity in front of us thanks to the strength of our mission, the value of our products and services, and our early investments in artificial intelligence (AI). To fully capture it, we’ll need to make tough choices. So, we’ve undertaken a rigorous review across product areas and functions to ensure that our people and roles are aligned with our highest priorities as a company. The roles we’re eliminating reflect the outcome of that review. They cut across Alphabet, product areas, functions, levels and regions.”
Intel increased the number of job cuts it had planned for California from 201 to 544 workers.
That’s according to WARN notices with the California Employment Development Department. Intel is cutting 201 workers at its headquarters in Santa Clara. That’s up from 90. Expect the layoffs to be complete by the end of this month.
In addition, Intel originally planned to cut 111 employees at its Folsom facility. That number has since climbed to 343. The first separations should be during a 14-day period starting March 15. The company will release more workers after that.
Intel sent us the following statement:
“As discussed on our Q3 earnings call, Intel is working to accelerate its strategy while navigating a challenging macroeconomic environment. We are focused on identifying cost reductions and efficiency gains through multiple initiatives, including some business and function-specific workforce reductions in areas across the company. We have more than 13,000 employees in California and continue to invest in areas core to our business, including our U.S.-based manufacturing operations, to ensure we are well-positioned for long-term growth. These are difficult decisions, and we are committed to treating impacted employees with dignity and respect.”
Cloud computing company PagerDuty confirmed layoffs impacting 7% of its workforce as part of its ongoing efforts to drive efficient growth and expand operating margins.
PagerDuty announced the layoffs in an SEC filing. According to its last annual report, the company had 950 employees. About 71% were in the United States and 29% were in its international locations.
PagerDuty is reallocating certain roles and realigning teams to continue to improve operational resiliency and agility. It’s also rationalizing its real estate footprint. The immediate impact is a 7% reduction in headcount in the near term.
PagerDuty will eliminate some roles and create new ones in cost-effective, high-talent geographies over time.
During its latest investor webcast, enterprise software giant SAP said it’s eliminating 3,000 jobs, amounting to 2.5% of its workforce.
CEO Christian Klein said the layoffs result from SAP’s consolidation around its S/4 HANA and Business Technology Platform (BTP).
“In 2023, we intend to sharpen this portfolio focus further,” Klein said. “As we continue to build on our core strengths, we will be pivoting our CX and industry areas to be more focused on specific industries complemented by a strong ecosystem. This focus on our core, together with our ongoing optimization of SAP structure for cloud success, are behind the announcement we made today. The intent [is] to carry out a targeted restructuring in select areas of the company.”
OpenText announced it will lay off 8% of its workforce. The cybersecurity firm has more than 14,000 employees in 60 offices worldwide.
OpenText didn’t say when the cuts will occur.
The announcement was buried at the bottom of an OpenText press release announcing the closing of the cybersecurity firm’s $5.8 billion acquisition of British rival Micro Focus. Micro Focus is an enterprise software provider that helps customers accelerate their digital transformations.
“Consistent with previously announced cost synergies of $400 million, [we] expect to balance the combined company through an approximate 8% workforce reduction due to the acquisition of Micro Focus,” the company said in the release.
In early January, Informatica confirmed layoffs impacting about 450 employees, or about 7% of its workforce.
Informatica detailed the layoffs in an SEC filing. The company provides enterprise cloud data management and is based in Redwood City, California.
“The plan is intended to better align the company’s global workforce and cost base with its cloud-focused strategic priorities and current business needs,” Informatica said in the SEC filing.
In January, storage giant NetApp said it would lay off 960 employees during the next three months, amounting to 8% of its workforce. NetApp announced the planned layoffs in an SEC filing.
CEO George Kurian said NetApp must reduce costs due to declining economic conditions resulting in more “conservative” IT spending.
“We are not immune to these challenges,” Kurian wrote in an email to employees. “Against this backdrop, we must be agile, deliver on our near-term commitments while positioning ourselves for long-term success.”
In January, storage giant NetApp said it would lay off 960 employees during the next three months, amounting to 8% of its workforce. NetApp announced the planned layoffs in an SEC filing.
CEO George Kurian said NetApp must reduce costs due to declining economic conditions resulting in more “conservative” IT spending.
“We are not immune to these challenges,” Kurian wrote in an email to employees. “Against this backdrop, we must be agile, deliver on our near-term commitments while positioning ourselves for long-term success.”
Although at a slower pace, the onslaught of tech companies announcing layoffs impacting thousands of workers continued into the third quarter of 2023.
It all comes amid economic uncertainty, and some companies, such as Cisco and Secureworks, have announced further layoffs. Our layoff tracker is normally a biannual update, but since the start of the year, more than 50 companies doing business in the channel have announced layoffs. Zebra Technologies, Slalom, T-Mobile, Secureworks and Rapid7 are among the latest pink-slipping workers. The cuts are in the hundreds, and in some cases, the thousands.
IT Job Market, Opportunities for IT Pros ‘Less Than Optimal’
According to the latest from Janco and Associates, the job market for IT professions is mixed as the IT unemployment rate soared to 4.1% despite almost 200,000 unfilled open requisitions. In July, there were 64,000 unemployed IT pros, In August there were 106,000, a 65% increase. On the plus side, 21,500 jobs were added to the IT job market in the last three months.
Janco revised its forecast for the IT job market down by over 20,000 to 60,000-70,000 from 80,000-90,000 for the calendar year 2023.
Janco’s Victor Janulaitis
“Based on our analysis, the IT job market and opportunities for IT professionals are mixed,” said Janco CEO Victor Janulaitis. “In the past three months, telecommunications lost 8,800 jobs (29,600 in the last 12 months), content providers lost 3,000 jobs (9,300 in the last 12 months), and other information services lost 1,300 jobs (5,300 in the last 12 months). Gainers in the last three months, computer system designers gained 20,000 jobs (58,400 in the last 12 months), and hosting providers gained 14,600 jobs (25,400 jobs in the last 12 months). Currently, there are almost 200,000 unfilled jobs with over 100,000 IP pros – a skills mismatch.”
Artificial intelligence (AI) is slowing the growth of many entry level positions within IT, especially in customer service, telecommunications and hosting automation. CIOs and CFOs are looking to improve the productivity of IT by automating processes and reporting where possible. They are focusing on eliminating “non-essential” managers, staff and services. Experienced coders and developers still have opportunities. The highest demand continues to be for AI, security professionals, programmers and blockchain-processing IT pros.
See our up-to-date layoff tracker above – including those that have happened since our last update – for the many job cuts already this year.
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