Private equity-owned Veeam has hit the headcount brakes and chopped 200 people in a layoff round.
Update: Veeam added headcount and customer stats. 23 March 2023.
“We have reduced our global workforce by 200 people,” a company spokesperson confirmed. “During this transition, our priority is helping our people – both those affected by this decision and those who remain with Veeam – with the best care and support possible.
“We are a strong, profitable, fast-growing company, however from time to time we must make decisions about where we should invest and how we can drive efficiency in the way we go-to-market. These decisions are wholly based on our priorities and do not reflect the work of those impacted.”
One of the people laid off was recruiter Shirley Shurling who posted a note on LinkedIn saying: “Tuesday at Veeam was an incredibly hard day for hundreds if not thousands of strong, passionate Veeamers across the Globe, both those of us impacted by the layoffs and those having to share the difficult news. After 9 + years, I find myself searching for the next opportunity. Like the journey that started 9 years ago, I look forward to jumping on another rocketship soon.”
Veeam says its growth from founding in 2006 has been meteoric. In 14 years, built by its VMware virtual machine protection features, it claims to have achieved a $1 billion annual run rate and served more than 365,000 customers worldwide. It was bought from co-founders Andrei Baronov and Ratmir Timashev by the private equity business Insight Partners for $5 billion in January 2020. IDC placed Veeam in joint first place in the data protection market with Dell in May last year, saying Veeam’s revenues were $647.17 million, 14.8 percent more than in 2021.
Competitor Commvault reported a 4 percent revenue decline in January.
In a later communication the Veeam spokesperson said: “The changes Veeam announced this week aren’t about ceasing hiring but about prioritising and indeed accelerating hiring in other areas, namely research and development. Veeam expects total headcount to increase by the end of the year.”
There are over 5,000 employees post layoffs, which means the layoff percentage was about 3.8 percent. And Veeam wants us to know it has over 450,000 customers.
Ironically, Veeam CTO Danny Allan commented about the reputational damage of layoffs via a Business Insider story in January: “Every time I see a notice in the news that such and such technology company has cut X percentage of their workforce, I don’t forget that. So you’re sending a message that also has a brand impact that you don’t necessarily want to be associated with. Employees remember and people looking for jobs remember how organizations acted during the economic downturn.”
Don’t forget Danny.
