LAYOFFS: NO LOVE AT MOZILLA CORPORATION (08/12/20)

AUGUST 12, 2020 — MOZILLA REFOCUSING ON MAKING MONEY STARTING WITH 250 LAYOFFS.

The company is undergoing a transformation to focus on cash-generating projects while cutting overhead costs. The company will be laying off 250 employees.

The initial focus will be on paid-subscription security and privacy tools.

According to Mitchell Baker’s company blog…

“We announced a significant restructuring of Mozilla Corporation. This will strengthen our ability to build and invest in products and services that will give people alternatives to conventional Big Tech. Sadly, the changes also include a significant reduction in our workforce by approximately 250 people. These are individuals of exceptional professional and personal caliber who have made outstanding contributions to who we are today. To each of them, I extend my heartfelt thanks and deepest regrets that we have come to this point. This is a humbling recognition of the realities we face, and what is needed to overcome them.”

“As I shared in the internal message sent to our employees today, our pre-COVID plan for 2020 included a great deal of change already: building a better internet by creating new kinds of value in Firefox; investing in innovation and creating new products; and adjusting our finances to ensure stability over the long term.  Economic conditions resulting from the global pandemic have significantly impacted our revenue. As a result, our pre-COVID plan was no longer workable. Though we’ve been talking openly with our employees about the need for change — including the likelihood of layoffs — since the spring, it was no easier today when these changes became real. I desperately wish there was some other way to set Mozilla up for long term success in building a better internet.”

“But to go further, we must be organized to be able to think about a different world. To imagine that technology will become embedded in our world even more than it is, and we want that technology to have different characteristics and values than we experience today.”

Original post…

Mountain View, California-based Mozilla Corporation, the wholly-owned subsidiary of the Mozilla Foundation that develops Internet-related applications, has announced a reduction in force impacting 70 employees. The decision was driven by a cash crunch following the delayed roll-out of their subscription VPN product.

According to interim CEO Mitchell Baker …

“I have some difficult news to share. With the support of the entire Steering Committee and our Board, we have made an extremely tough decision: over the course of today, we plan to eliminate about 70 roles from across MoCo. This number may be slightly larger as we are still in a consultation process in the UK and France, as the law requires, on the exact roles that may be eliminated there. We are doing this with the utmost respect for each and every person who is impacted and will go to great lengths to take care of them by providing generous exit packages and outplacement support. Most will not join us in Berlin. I will send another note when we have been able to talk to the affected people wherever possible, so that you will know when the notifications/outreach are complete.

This news likely comes as a shock and I am sorry that we could not have been more transparent with you along the way. This is never my desire. Reducing our headcount was something the Steering Committee considered as part of our 2020 planning and budgeting exercise only after all other avenues were explored. The final decision was made just before the holiday break with the work to finalize the exact set of roles affected continuing into early January (there are exceptions in the UK and France where we are consulting on decisions.) I made the decision not to communicate about this until we had a near-final list of roles and individuals affected.

Even though I expect it will be difficult to digest right now, I would like to share more about what led to this decision. Perhaps you can come back to it later, if that’s easier.

You may recall that we expected to be earning revenue in 2019 and 2020 from new subscription products as well as higher revenue from sources outside of search. This did not happen. Our 2019 plan underestimated how long it would take to build and ship new, revenue-generating products. Given that, and all we learned in 2019 about the pace of innovation, we decided to take a more conservative approach to projecting our revenue for 2020. We also agreed to a principle of living within our means, of not spending more than we earn for the foreseeable future.

This approach is prudent certainly, but challenging practically. In our case, it required difficult decisions with painful results. Regular annual pay increases, bonuses and other costs which increase from year-to-year as well as a continuing need to maintain a separate, substantial innovation fund, meant that we had to look for considerable savings across Mozilla as part of our 2020 planning and budgeting process. This process ultimately led us to the decision to reduce our workforce.

As we look to the future, we know we must take bold steps to evolve and ensure the strength and longevity of our mission. Mozilla has a strong line of sight to future revenue generation, but we are taking a more conservative approach to our finances. This will enable us to pivot as needed to respond to market threats to internet health, and champion user privacy and agency.

I ask that we all do what we can to support each other through this difficult period.”

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?

NO LOVE AT CA TECHNOLOGIES

According to documents filed with the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission), New York-based CA Technologies (formerly known as Computer Associates) has announced a restructuring plan that will result in approximately 800 layoffs and some office closures.

FISCAL 2019 RESTRUCTURING CHARGE

On May 2, 2018, the Company's Board of Directors approved a restructuring plan ("Fiscal 2019 Plan") to better align its business priorities. 

The Fiscal 2019 Plan comprises the termination of approximately 800 employees and facility exits and consolidations. These actions are intended to better align the Company's cost structure with the skills and resources required to more effectively pursue opportunities in the marketplace and execute the Company's long-term growth strategy, which includes a particular focus on shifting more of the Company's business to a subscription-based model. 

Actions under the Fiscal 2019 Plan are expected to be substantially completed by the end of fiscal 2019. Under the Fiscal 2019 Plan, the Company expects to incur a pre-tax charge between approximately $140 million and $160 million (including severance costs between approximately $90 million and $100 million and facility exit and consolidation costs between approximately $50 million and $60 million). 

Are you asking yourself, Am I Next?

BETTING ON TECHNOLOGY OR HUMAN NATURE

The old adage that the only constant is change may be true for technology, but it is not so much true for human nature.

With relatively few loners and psychopaths, most of mankind exhibits the characteristics and behavior grossly referred to as human nature. That is, an individual will first attempt to identify as part of the herd (tribe, clan, group, whatever), and then attempt to attain a position in the herd’s hierarchy based on their inherent strengths, skills, birth, education, or some other generally recognized characteristic. And then to reinforce that hierarchal position with some form of totemic signaling – be it by position or the acquisition and/or display of goods.

In this, there will always be inequality, with some people being stronger or weaker, leaders or followers, producers or consumers, givers or takers, doers or slackers, etcetera – with the most of the people falling somewhere in the middle – hence the bell curve. Hence, one needs always to consider what it means to be an outlier at the edge of the curve.

A note about social justice warriors – this is a political movement that capitalizes on natural inequities by promising equality of outcome rather than equality of opportunity. True class warfare and wealth re-distribution lead to chaos, confusion, and eventually a type of decay death spiral that demands a totalitarian government supported by special interests which are kept fighting each other lest they grow strong enough to overpower the regime in power. In the end, the only equality that is shared by the masses is equality of suffering and misery.

There is a class of humans that create nothing, but manage to enhance their position by facilitating the trades of others as middlemen and reporters. And, another class of individuals who gain or maintain power by controlling and profiting on real, imagined, or man-made scarcity as politicians.

There is some human satisfaction in getting something for free, jumping the line, or simply coming out ahead on a transaction. And individuals tend to want what they can’t have or belongs to someone else – especially if that someone else is higher on the hierarchal totem pole. 

Technology will always gain as faster and wider adoption if it can be used for illegal purposes. The classic example is the adoption of video recorders to distribute and playback pornographic material or the use of the internet to facilitate gambling, the avoidance of taxes, or the purchase of illicit goods.

So, in the final analysis, one may bet on technology – but only if it facilitates individual wants and needs. A fancy way of saying, if you want to get rich, find a need and fill it with a high-margin product with an exponential growth record.

We would be remiss if we did not comment on the greater fool theory – thinking that there will always be some fool to buy individuals out of a losing proposition. Pretty much what powers some of the giant technology companies that have never made a profit, razzle and dazzle with some artificial metric such as “eyeballs,” “time-on-site,” “bounce rate” or some such phrase that may be, widely, and wrongly, considered as a synonym of profitability.

We have seen great technological strides, but not very much improvement in human nature. Bet on human nature – it’s a sure thing.