In the latest addition to the list of major companies curtailing their workforce in recent times, popular cybersecurity firm Kape Technologies has laid off around 200 employees.
Kape Technologies is the company behind a number of popular VPN services, including ExpressVPN, CyberGhost, and Private Access Internet (PIA).
The layoffs have taken place across various departments, including the three major divisions mentioned above. Several high-ranking executives were fired in this round of layoffs, following which others, such as the company’s Chief Technology Officer Dan Gericke, decided to walk out.
Kape Technologies Curtailed Around 30% of Its Workforce, Says Ex-CTO Dan Gericke
Kape Technologies hasn’t made any official announcements about the layoffs yet, and neither have any of the involved VPN providers. However, many of the company’s current and former employees took to LinkedIn to talk about the layoffs.
Many employees who have potentially been fired or decided to leave the company had the prominent “Open to Work” banner circling their profile pictures on LinkedIn.
I decided to exit along with my many amazing colleagues that were terminated and am officially announcing my departure as CTO of ExpressVPN and the Kape Privacy Division.Dan Gericke, CTO, Kape Technologies
According to Gericke, Kape Technologies cut off about 30% of its global workforce this week. Recruiters from other companies seized the opportunity to express their sympathies with those affected by the layoffs and offer job opportunities.
Many other alleged former employees who weren’t comfortable about exposing their identity used Reddit to voice their opinions anonymously. From the posts, their displeasure with how Kape Technologies went about the restructuring process was pretty evident.
Mass Layoffs in 2023
This year has witnessed massive rounds of layoffs across major companies around the globe, with companies cutting off their staff left and right.
February and March saw over 36,000 and 37,000 tech layoffs, respectively, with more companies following suit.
Over 84,700 workers in the industry were laid off in January, including around 12,000 employees from Google’s parent company, Alphabet. In the same month, Amazon did away with more than 18,000 roles, and Microsoft laid off around 10,000 employees.
Amazon announced on March 20 that another 9,000 employees were set to lose their jobs. On 14th March, Mark Zuckerberg confirmed that Facebook’s parent company Meta would be cutting off 10,000 jobs.
Microblogging platform Twitter has seen several rounds of layoffs since Elon Musk took over the company last year. Musk confirmed in April that he had already fired more than 80% of the entire Twitter workforce since his takeover. As of now, employment in the tech industry remains highly volatile.
