Sophos Layoffs Hammer 6% of Workforce Post-Secureworks AcquisitionSophos Layoffs Hammer 6% of Workforce Post-Secureworks Acquisition

Sophos layoffs, in the aftermath of its $859 million Secureworks acquisition, are impacting 6% of its combined workforce.

In October, Sophos announced it was acquiring Secureworks from Dell Technologies in an all-cash deal. Based in the United Kingdom, Sophos is backed by private-equity firm Thoma Bravo.

Sophos employed 4,800 workers and Secureworks had about 1,700 as of last month, according to LeadIQ. That means the Sophos layoffs could impact nearly 400 staffers.

What’s Behind Sophos Layoffs

Sophos sent us the following statement:

“To further align our business with how we are accelerating growth this fiscal year and beyond, and following the close of the Secureworks acquisition, we are making organizational changes that include some role eliminations and the start of consultation periods where required. This will impact roughly 6% of our combined companies, which is also due to reducing positions that are no longer needed when Secureworks delisted as a public company and streamlining duplicative roles as a result of the acquisition.

"We’re also increasing investments in essential competencies with the addition of Secureworks’ and other new leaders and experts who have joined us in key departments over the last year," the statement continued. "Staff changes and redundancies are difficult at any time, and we deeply appreciate the contributions of our collective employees globally who have worked hard to bring both companies to where we are today. For those leaving, we thank them for their expertise and commitment, and we’re providing financial support, well-being resources and career transitional services to help when they depart.”

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Sophos added:

“In addition to aligning our business goals, changes in the cyberattack landscape are driving an urgent shift in security needs. With persistent increases in both targeted and opportunistic cyberattacks, organizations of any type and size are now battling both everyday cybercrime, such as identity theft, data theft and ransomware, and state sponsored attacks, which used to be more focused on specific enterprise or public sector targets.”

Sophos Now Pure-Play MDR Leader

Joe Levy, Sophos’ CEO, in a video message on the company’s website, said his company is now the No. 1 pure-play cybersecurity provider of managed detection and response (MDR), collectively supporting more than 28,000 organizations of all sizes worldwide.

“This acquisition brings all of our customers exciting and new opportunities for stronger cybersecurity outcomes,” he said. “With our combined Sophos and Secureworks AI-enhanced technologies and services, we will deliver the most comprehensive, open and scalable security operations platform in the world. This includes more than 350 built-in integrations and end-to-end security solutions for defending all critical points in modern IT operations and every critical point in the attack chain, from early risk detection and management, to fast response and remediation.”

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In the short term, Sophos and Secureworks will continue delivering their current sets of services and technologies to their respective customers, Levy said.

“We will continue to work with channel partners and MSPs, and also, of course, our MSSPs worldwide to ensure that our collective customers for both companies have optimal cybersecurity outcomes now and as we work to integrate our solutions,” he said. “We have some exciting times ahead for Sophos and we are grateful to have you join us in this next chapter of our evolution. “