Sophos is the latest company to lay off a significant number of its employees amid global economic uncertainty.
“Sophos today announced an internal restructuring that led to job losses and the start of consultation periods that will potentially affect 10% of our global employee base,” said the antivirus company TechRadar Pro in a statement.
Sophos is reported to have cited an “optimal balance of growth and profitability” as the main reason for laying off many of its employees as it looks to shift its focus to the managed portion of its detection and response business, an area it says is currently growing by 50% annually.
Layoffs at Sophos
While the estimated 450 employees may not sound as drastic as Amazon’s plans to cut 18,000 jobs, that figure represents 10% of the company’s global workforce, which is at the higher end of a scale where many tech companies have chosen to lay off between 5% and 10% of their number of employees.
Sophos is not alone in facing the pressures of a difficult macroeconomic environment: Salesforce has already confirmed that at least 10% of its workforce will leave, and some speculate that the company’s CEO Marc Benioff may consider further cuts.
Microsoft has also confirmed massive layoffs among its employees as the number of tech companies facing layoffs is increasing almost by the day.
This is a continuation of a similar story that took place throughout 2022, but some reports indicate that this is not all bad news.
ZipRecruiter found that many tech workers found re-employment fairly quickly, while other career opportunities opened up as various companies sought highly in-demand skills.
TechRadar Pro asked Sophos for further comment on the news. A company spokesperson told us:
“We especially apologize to those who will leave and are committed to providing financial support, wellbeing assistance and appropriate career transition services where possible to all departing employees.”
By TechCrunch (opens in a new tab)