Genesys Layoffs Come as CCaaS Provider Concludes Radarr Takeover

Less than one week after Genesys finalized the terms and conditions of the acquisition that made it the proud one of analytics firm Radarr, the company is reportedly laying off less than 1% of its workforce. In a statement, the cloud service provider told Channel Futures:

"Genesys remains invested in the success of our Genesys Cloud platform and focused on aligning resources to drive its growth. To support that focus, we recently made a very small reduction of our workforce limited to employees supporting legacy on-premises products, representing less than 1% of Genesys employees. With strong cloud business performance, Genesys is actively recruiting talent with the skill sets we need to drive momentum for Genesys Cloud in the future."

Genesys is one of many players in the unified communications (UC) arena laying off employees before and after the advent of their fiscal year, looking to balance books and recover from the boom most unified-communications-as-a-service (UCaaS)/contact-center-as-a-service (CCaaS) companies underwent at the height of the pandemic, something experts have warned would come. 

Now, it appears to have become somewhat of a new reality, with companies like 8x8, Zoom, and LiveVox/NICE laying off staff. That includes members of their sales and channel teams in some instances. 

Related:Updated Telecom-IT Layoff Tracker September 2023: Cisco, Ingram Micro, Trellix, T-Mobile, More

We spoke with Michael Agri, president at North Atlantic Consultants, to get his take on all the layoffs happening as of late. He said while every situation is different, financial uncertainty "likely" accounts for many of the layoffs we've seen.

North Atlantic Consultants' Michael Agri

In the case of GoTo, Agri told Channel Futures, "GoTo is looking to sell their business, so letting go of staff is an obvious way to improve the books." 

Regarding Zoom, Agri shared that Zoom's business model may have a lot to do with its recent round of layoffs, noting that "Ninety percent of their clients don't pay for their services, so I am guessing that they overestimated their growth of Zoom Phone."

Genesys Layoffs Amid Radarr Acquisition

With several factors at play, including ushering in a fresh fiscal year, Genesys layoffs demonstrate the cloud service provider is cleaning house. 

The CCaaS provider released its financial earnings report, announcing growth in its artificial intelligence (AI) division, also stating it earned some $1.3 billion in annual recurring revenue, experiencing growth in other areas as well. 

It seems, then, daft to announce layoffs amid periods of growth. But that's not always the case, as some experts have shared with us in the past. It could be merely getting rid of underperformers. 

According to TheLayoff.com, a site where former employees can inform of layoffs, "It looks like this was a silent layoff, so probably not as big as previous rounds. The few I know who got laid off were still working on the Engage platform," posted one visitor to the site.

As of March 15, 2023, subscribers could no longer renew licenses for Genesys predictive engagement on Genesys Engage on-premises, Genesys Engage Cloud and Genesys Engage Multicloud (hybrid solutions). 

Genesys migrated all existing organizations leveraging its hybrid solutions to Genesys Predictive Engagement a purely cloud-based solution, signifying a shift in focus.

Tech Layoffs Have Become Ubiquitous 

Crunchbase reports layoffs during this week alone amounted to at least 6,471 United States tech industry employees getting the boot.

Three months into the year, some 18,873 workers at U.S.-based tech companies have lost their jobs, further according to Crunchbase. In 2023, almost 200,000 tech industry workers lost their jobs. And in 2022, that number sat at nearly 100,000 tech industry employees getting laid off. 

Companies like Amazon let go of more than 16,000 employees, while competitor Microsoft had 11,158 layoffs in 2023.  It appears Genesys layoffs are merely a part of a trend, for better or for worse.