Proofpoint lays off 6% of workforce, moves positions to Argentina and Ireland

Proofpoint, a cybersecurity firm, announced layoffs of 280 employees, about 6% of its workforce, as part of a strategic restructuring aimed at aligning investments with its priorities and leveraging global talent pools. Despite the layoffs, the company plans to maintain its workforce size by the end of the year through strategic hires and relocation of some roles outside the US.

What happened

As first reported by Calcalist, Proofpoint announced the layoffs of 280 staff members. The layoffs have impacted employees worldwide and appear part of efficiency restructuring. This comes two months after Proofpoint tapped former VMware executive Sumit Dhawan to be CEO. 

What's next

According to TechCrunch, Proofpoint said that half of the eliminated positions will be moved to offices in Ireland and Argentina.

What they're saying

"To position Proofpoint for continued and long-term success as a world-class business operating at scale, we have made the difficult decision to reduce our current workforce by about 280 positions globally," the company told Calcalist, going to say the move aims to streamline the company with fewer management layers. 

They added, "We appreciate our employees' dedication and service and are committed to helping them make this transition as smoothly as possible."

By the numbers:

• Proofpoint has about 4500 employees worldwide.
• 280 employees, about 6% of its workforce, were laid off.
• Private Equity firm Thoma Bravo acquired Proofpoint in 2021 for $12.3 billion.
• Proofpoint has had four company leaders since the acquisition.

The big picture

This news is part of a broader pattern" observed in the te" h industry, where major entities like Alphabet, Amazon, and eBay have initiated substantial workforce reductions to cut expenses and boost profitability. Layoffs.fyi reports indicate that over 29,000 employees from more than 100 tech firms have been dismissed since the year's start. 

Cybersecurity layoffs are in contrast to the rapid growth of cybercrime. As reported by Paubox News, the number of individuals impacted by HIPAA breaches, most of which were Hacking and IT-related incidents, more than doubled from 56 million to 134 million. Recently, Cybersecurity researcher Bob Dyachenko and the team at Cybernews discovered a 12-terabyte database containing 26 billion leaked records.