Tired of Tech Layoffs? Snowflake Goes the Opposite Direction
The company is making a splash with its news. And see what’s up at AWS and Salesforce.
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Tech-sector layoffs have turned commonplace — which is why it’s unusual to see a company announcing that it plans to hire people.
Yet that’s exactly what’s happening over at cloud data and analytics vendor Snowflake. During its latest earnings call, the company announced that it plans to bring on more than 1,000 employees in its current fiscal year.
Its financials notwithstanding (analysts and investors aren’t keen on performance and outlook), Snowflake sees “the current hiring market as favorable.” That was the word from Mike Scarpelli, Snowflake’s CFO, during the company’s March 1 call with analysts.
Snowflake also said it brought on around 1,900 net-new staff in its fiscal year 2023, which just ended.
See the next slide for commentary on the significance of Snowflake’s hiring news.
Snowflake’s hiring news stands out as significant because cloud and other technology companies have been shedding workers like a dog prepping for summer.
These firms — which include Google, parts of Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure, and more — got themselves into a sticky wicket after overhiring during COVID-19. As we’ve said before and will say again, executives kept approving personnel additions to try to meet unprecedented demand, but didn’t seem to think ahead about the post-pandemic ripple effects.
Now, thousands of people are paying the price for hiring decisions made by executives, but for which the executives themselves haven’t really been held responsible. (We’re far from the only publication calling out this disparity, by the way.)
Snowflake, for its part, says it will continue to prioritize hiring in product, engineering and sales. On the flip side, the company is slowing hiring in groups “where we don’t see the productivity,” CFO Scarpelli said.
He also would not commit to faster revenue growth “unless we see productivity increase in the sale organization.”
But there’s one announcement that might actually speed up Snowflake’s sales. See the next slide.
Snowflake has expanded its partnership with AWS.
The data warehouse company intends to increase its AWS spend and pitch in on product development, integration, and sales and marketing collaboration. Meanwhile, both Snowflake and AWS will pour millions of dollars into go-to-market strategies. Snowflake alone will contribute $2.5 billion.
The vendors will team up for another five years. They’ve worked together for three years. Those efforts have “created what we believe may be one of the most successful technology co-sell partnerships in cloud computing,” Frank Slootman, chairman and CEO of Snowflake, said.
Adam Selipsky, CEO of AWS, agreed.
“Data is at the center of every application, process and business decision, and is the cornerstone of digital transformation,” he said. “Working alongside Snowflake, we are unlocking new value for thousands of customers around the world and helping them maximize their data investments.”
Speaking of AWS and investment, the company is funneling billions of dollars into Malaysia.
The world’s largest public cloud computing provider said on March 1 it will launch data center presence in the Southeast Asian country. AWS intends to spend $6 billion on the effort by 2037. It’s a big deal for both the provider and the people of Malaysia.
“Bringing access to … AWS infrastructure, advanced technologies and cloud skills programs to Malaysia will unlock opportunities for local businesses of all sizes to build and expand globally, cultivate a highly skilled workforce, spur new job creation, and deliver long-term economic growth,” Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, Prime Minister of Malaysia, said in a press release.
The new AWS Region initially will feature three Availability Zones, or infrastructure in separate locations for business continuity purposes. At the same time, AWS keeps these zones close enough to each other to ensure low latency.
On the next slide, we look at Salesforce’s latest earnings.
All right, so, Snowflake is hiring and now Salesforce, fresh off firing 7,500 staff, just delivered what one analyst is calling “a monster quarter.” Another dubbed the numbers released on Wednesday “the trifecta — growth, margins and share buybacks.”
How much Salesforce’s latest earnings have to do with layoffs isn’t clear.
Overall, Salesforce is contending with activist investors who want the company to do more with less. Those external stakeholders — Elliott Management, Starboard Value, ValueAct Capital, Inclusive Capital Partners and Third Point Management — have been pushing for the Marc Benioff-led company to spend less money and cut down on its deal-making activity. In fact, Elliott Management just nominated people it wants to sit on the Salesforce board, which would put more pressure on Salesforce.
Even so, Salesforce on March 1 showed better-than-expected numbers, posting fourth-quarter of $8.4 billion. Analysts were projecting $7.99 billion. Margins reached 22.5%.
All right, so, Snowflake is hiring and now Salesforce, fresh off firing 7,500 staff, just delivered what one analyst is calling “a monster quarter.” Another dubbed the numbers released on Wednesday “the trifecta — growth, margins and share buybacks.”
How much Salesforce’s latest earnings have to do with layoffs isn’t clear.
Overall, Salesforce is contending with activist investors who want the company to do more with less. Those external stakeholders — Elliott Management, Starboard Value, ValueAct Capital, Inclusive Capital Partners and Third Point Management — have been pushing for the Marc Benioff-led company to spend less money and cut down on its deal-making activity. In fact, Elliott Management just nominated people it wants to sit on the Salesforce board, which would put more pressure on Salesforce.
Even so, Salesforce on March 1 showed better-than-expected numbers, posting fourth-quarter of $8.4 billion. Analysts were projecting $7.99 billion. Margins reached 22.5%.
Tech layoffs appear to have slowed and, in fact, one cloud company — Snowflake — says it will add employees this year.
It’s with that positive news that we bring you our latest cloud computing news roundup. Even better for busy readers, this is a short one that will take you no time at all to read. But read it you should for the skinny on the Snowflake hiring news, as well as for the tidbits we’ve got on Amazon Web Services and Salesforce.
Given all of the unwelcome tech layoffs that have come over the past few months, Snowflake’s announcement should boost some outlooks. Snowflake also has a new deal with AWS, which we examine briefly. From there, AWS has news of its own. We conclude with a look at Salesforce and why its stock is exploding all of a sudden. (No, the company did not reveal any more tech layoffs, so that’s good.)
See our short slideshow above for the latest.
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