7 Channel People Making Waves This Week at Okta, Zoom, Google Cloud, OpenText, More
It's all about "reliable and responsible AI," according to Google Cloud's CEO. The company is investing in startup Anthropic to compete with ChatGPT.
February 10, 2023
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Secureworks has confirmed layoffs impacting 9% of its workforce — more than 200 employees. The company is shifting to a “smaller, more focused team. ” CEO Wendy Thomas made waves when she said that this year marks a turning point in the company’s business, and not only because of layoffs.
“We reached the end-of-life of Counter Threat Platform (CTP) for most of our customers, and we begin fiscal 2024 with our core business on [cloud-native enterprise security platform] Taegis together with strategic consulting to create better security outcomes for our customers,” Thomas said. “Since we began this journey over five years ago, we’ve evolved how we work and organize our teams to ensure our customers’ success globally. Now, we are making additional changes to position our business for long-term success.”
Learn why a different organization is required.
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 also made waves by planning to reduce his salary for the coming fiscal year by 98% and foregoing his fiscal year 2023 corporate bonus.
Zoom joins the more than 20 companies doing business in the channel that have cut workers since the start of the year.
Find out to what extent the Zoom executive team will also reduce their base salaries.
OpenText will lay off 8% of its workforce, the company said. The cybersecurity firm has more than 14,000 employees in 60 offices worldwide.
Coinciding with that announcement, the company also closed on its acquisition of British rival Micro Focus for $5.8 billion. Micro Focus is an enterprise software provider that helps customers accelerate their digital transformations.
Mark Barrenechea is OpenText CEO and CTO.
“I would like to welcome Micro Focus customers, partners and employees to OpenText,” Barrenechea said. “Digital life is life, and with Micro Focus’ great products and talent, we will help organizations of all sizes accelerate their digital transformation.”
Learn why cost synergies are a key part of this acquisition.
Okta is cutting 300 workers due primarily to overhiring.
Okta announced the layoffs in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). It announced a restructuring plan to reduce operating expenses and improve profitability. The layoffs impact 5% of Okta’s workforce.
Okta CEO Todd McKinnon made waves when he sent an email to employees about the restructuring plan and rapid pace of layoffs. He said cutting workers was a “very difficult” decision.
“A workforce reduction like this is the last thing I wanted to do, and I am truly sorry,” McKinnon said.
Learn how the layoffs impacted the company’s stock value.
AppDirect’s acquisition of TBI this week hit the wires, signaling the consolidation of yet another national technology services distributor (TSD). However, the transaction dubbed by many as “the worst kept secret in the channel” came as no surprise to most partners and suppliers.
Rise Technology Advisors co-founder Eric Ludwig said the acquisition seems to make sense on paper.
“The AppDirect portfolio does represent some unique services and partners outside the traditional suppliers, and the TBI back office certainly fits within any organization looking to balance front- and back-end resources and investments.”
Discover what more partners had to say about the acquisition.
Alphabet’s Google is making good on its intent to ramp up more quickly in artificial intelligence.
Alphabet execs said to look for more AI focus from Google. They said that without explicitly referring to competitor Microsoft, which continues to invest billions of dollars in OpenAI’s ChatGPT. But the industry consensus is that Google has fallen woefully behind in the AI arms race.
Now the company is trying to make up for that by investing almost $400 million into AI startup Anthropic. (Consider, though, that Microsoft has funneled more than $10 billion into Chat GPT.)
“AI has evolved from academic research to become one of the biggest drivers of technological change, creating new opportunities for growth and improved services across all industries,” said Thomas Kurian, CEO of Google Cloud. “Google Cloud is providing open infrastructure for the next generation of AI startups, and our partnership with Anthropic is a great example of how we’re helping users and businesses tap into the power of reliable and responsible AI.”
Read more here from our cloud roundup.
Avaya bondholders are suing the company, claiming “massive fraud.” The plaintiffs say they lost more than $125 million because the company’s board misled investors.
Filed Feb. 1 in New York State Supreme Court, the lawsuit’s plaintiffs include Angelo Gordon & Co., Canyon Partners and Mariner Investment Group.
Blair Pleasant is president and principal analyst at COMMfusion. The lawsuit against Avaya did not surprise her. For some time, investors have been voicing their grievances on social media.
“I know from investor comments on Twitter that they’re very, very angry, and they feel that the company is being dishonest,” she said.
Read more here about what factors are driving the lawsuit.
Avaya bondholders are suing the company, claiming “massive fraud.” The plaintiffs say they lost more than $125 million because the company’s board misled investors.
Filed Feb. 1 in New York State Supreme Court, the lawsuit’s plaintiffs include Angelo Gordon & Co., Canyon Partners and Mariner Investment Group.
Blair Pleasant is president and principal analyst at COMMfusion. The lawsuit against Avaya did not surprise her. For some time, investors have been voicing their grievances on social media.
“I know from investor comments on Twitter that they’re very, very angry, and they feel that the company is being dishonest,” she said.
Read more here about what factors are driving the lawsuit.
Channel people at Okta, Zoom, Google Cloud, OpenText and more are among the individuals making waves this week. Channel Futures’ Channel People Making Waves showcases those who have made an impact over the last seven days. (See our slideshow above.) It’s also a recap of the most-read stories on our website.
This week we did a deep dive into AppDirect’s acquisition of TBI, which many have dubbed as “the worst kept secret in the channel.” The article was our No. 3 most-read story of the week as our senior news editor, James Anderson, features interviews with partners about their take on the acquisition.
However, the news was once again less about deals and more about layoffs. Eric Yuan, Zoom’s CEO, announced a reduction in headcount that would impact 15% of its staff. Maybe just as surprising is that Yuan will cut his salary by 98%. Our roundup also includes information about layoffs at OpenText, as well as that company’s monster acquisition of Micro Focus.
Google is investing $400 million in AI startup Anthropic in attempts to compete with Microsoft, which is investing billions of dollars in OpenAI’s ChatGPT. It still remains to be seen how these AI technologies will impact the channel on a broad scale.
And that’s a wrap. If you didn’t catch our previous edition, you can find it here.
Want to contact the author directly about this story? Have ideas for a follow-up article? Email Claudia Adrien or connect with her on LinkedIn. |
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