Splunk to slice 7% of workforce, or about 500 staff, ahead of Cisco acquisition

Cybersecurity agency Splunk, set to be Cisco’s largest-ever acquisition, announced Wednesday it would lay off somewhere around 7% of its global workforce, months in advance of the deal close.

Splunk experienced nearly 8,000 personnel as of January, according to its regulatory filings, that means that all-around 500 workforce will probably shed their employment. The organization laid off about 300 employees previously this year.

Splunk CEO Gary Steele stated that the firings “are not a result of our arrangement with Cisco” in a letter to personnel that was submitted with the Securities and Trade Fee.

Most of the laid-off staff are situated in the U.S., in accordance to a concurrent filing with the SEC, and will acquire unspecified severance and health care offers. “Within just the following 24 hours, each ELT member will talk with their organization to summarize any adjustments to their teams,” Steele wrote.

Splunk will incur about $42 million in restructuring expenditures, with most happening in advance of the conclusion of April 2024. The organization declined to remark on which groups would be impacted or the timing of the layoffs soon following the acquisition announcement, and referred CNBC back again to its SEC submitting.

In September, Cisco announced it would acquire Splunk in an all-hard cash deal valued at $28 billion. The providers mentioned the deal was predicted to near by the third quarter of 2024.

Soon after the announcement, Steele and Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins talked over the offer on a simply call with analysts. “Collectively, we will become just one of the major software firms globally,” Robbins advised analysts.

Layoffs have struck tech providers big and small in excess of the past yr. Providers like Google and Microsoft have slice thousands of workforce, when several venture-backed providers have grow to be so-identified as “zombie startups.”