AM I NEXT? NO LOVE AT OKTA (02/01/2024)

FEBRUARY 1, 2024 —

The company has announced the layoff of 7% of its workforce, approximately 400 employees.

CEO Todd McKinnon ,,,

Hi Everyone,

After a thoughtful FY25 business planning process, the leadership team and I have made the difficult decision to implement a workforce reduction impacting about 7% of our company, or approximately 400 people.

I know this is difficult news, and I’d like to provide some context on how we reached this decision.

In order to grow profitably, we need to run the business with greater efficiency. While we’ve taken steps in the right direction, the reality is that costs are still too high. We need to be mindful of our overall spend so we can continue to invest in the areas, products, and routes to market with the most opportunity. To capture our massive potential and build an iconic company, we must be thoughtful about where we place our bets. This action is a proactive measure to help set the company up for long-term success.

To the impacted employees, I am deeply sorry and we thank you for your many contributions. We are committed to supporting you during this transition and providing all possible resources to help you through this time.

Our priority today is managing this transition as respectfully as possible. As we navigate these changes, remember that Okta is critical infrastructure for 18,800 organizations around the world. We’re looking forward to the work ahead with Okta in the right position to extend our leadership position and execute our vision to free everyone to safely use any technology.

Todd

FEBRUARY 17, 2023 — Original post…

San Francisco, California-based Okta, an identity and access management company that provides secure user authentication to applications, has announced a cost-cutting initiative that targets 5% of the company's workforce.

The personnel adjustment will impact approximately 300 employees.

According to Chief Executive Todd McKinnon, "Okta made decisions last year that were based on demand trends experienced in 2021. This led us to overhire for the macroeconomic reality we’re in today. The company faced execution challenges in fiscal 2023, which began in February 2022. I wish I had responded sooner, but we’re doing the best we can today to adjust to this reality.”

“A workforce reduction like this is the last thing I wanted to do, and I am truly sorry.”

Change is coming. There will always be a tomorrow, no matter how much you may try to ignore it. There are no guarantees in life or promises for a bright future. We see good people being laid off through no fault of their own. Just because something bad hasn't happened yet, doesn't mean it won't. It can happen to anyone, anytime, anywhere. No one is guaranteed to wake up tomorrow and still have a job by evening. Are you now wondering, Am I Next?

AM I NEXT? NO LOVE AT ELASTIC

Mountain View, California-based Elastic, a provider of computer search and security solutions, has announced a cost-cutting initiative that will see the closure of some offices and a reduction in the company's workforce.

The personnel adjustment will impact approximately 13% of the company's workforce, or around 450 employees, with the layoffs and office closures set to conclude by July 2023.

From CEO Ash Kulkarni's email to Elastic employees...

Today, I have the sad responsibility to announce we are reducing our team by about 13%.

I didn't take this decision lightly. Since becoming CEO, I have had the opportunity to spend time with Elasticians around the globe. It's been an honor getting to know so many of you. Your passion and commitment humble me.

I have also had the privilege of meeting with hundreds of our customers. We are fortunate that security, observability, and search are mission-critical to our customers. However, it has become clear that the global macroeconomic environment is forcing our customers to tighten budgets and review investments more closely. This is especially true in certain segments of the market like small and medium businesses where the current appetite to spend in uncertain times is limited.

In order to help our customers through this clearly difficult environment, it is more important than ever before for us to stay close to them and to help them realize the value of consolidating onto a single platform for multiple business-critical use cases. That also requires us to be more focused on our coverage, our sales plays, our product investments, and our internal support as we drive greater operational excellence.

In short, this means increasing our focus on those areas of the business that are most critical to our future and finding more efficient ways to service some parts of our business. This will enable us to navigate through this business climate and emerge even stronger in the future.

I know that this decision is the right decision for our organization. But that doesn't make it any less painful and humbling. I promise you that we will treat our departing Elasticians with empathy as we have always treated each other. I also promise you that we will come out of this stronger and better prepared to grow our market share.

In addition to reducing headcount, we are also reducing cost in other areas. For instance, we are optimizing our global real estate footprint.

I am confident we have the right strategy. We will continue to focus on developing the best cloud experiences for our customers and driving profitable growth.

Today is a sad day. We are saying goodbye to friends and colleagues.

As hard as this is for all of us, our future is bright. I look forward to working with you to propel Elastic into that future as we make Elastic a generational brand.

Change is coming. There will always be a tomorrow, no matter how much you may try to ignore it. There are no guarantees in life or promises for a bright future. We see good people being laid off through no fault of their own. Just because something bad hasn't happened yet, doesn't mean it won't. It can happen to anyone, anytime, anywhere. No one is guaranteed to wake up tomorrow and still have a job by evening. Are you now wondering, Am I Next?

AM I NEXT? LAYOFFS AT LACEWORK

Mountain View, California-based Lacework, a provider of an automated security platform for cloud-based services that provides threat intrusion detection and defense, has announced a restructuring leading to a major round of layoffs impacting approximately 20% of its workforce, estimated at 200 employees.

According to the company's two co-CEOs, David Hatfield and Jay Parikh, "Today, we made the very difficult decision to say goodbye to some of our colleagues, as part of a restructuring and modification to the company plan. Over the past several weeks and months, a seismic shift has occurred in both the public and private markets. While we do not have control of the environment around us, we do have a responsibility to control how we operate our business and make changes as needed to best position the company for continued and long-term success. Despite the broader economic environment – demand for cloud security will remain strong, and it is critical to all online, cloud businesses."

Change is coming. There will always be a tomorrow, no matter how much you may try to ignore it. There are no guarantees in life or promises for a bright future. Just because something bad hasn't happened yet, doesn't mean it won't. It can happen to anyone, anytime, anywhere. No one is guaranteed to wake up tomorrow and still have a job by evening. Are you now wondering, Am I Next?