Australian software company Atlassian has announced to cut 10% of its workforce or 1,600 jobs. Among those leaving the company is the Chief technology officer Rajeev Rajan. The job cuts come as the company restructures following a decline in its stock price driven by AI developments. According to a report by news agency Reuters, CEO Mike Cannon-Brookes has sent a memo to employees informing them about the layoffs. “Our approach is not ‘AI replaces people.’ But it would be disingenuous to pretend AI doesn’t change the mix of skills we need or the number of roles required in certain areas. It does,” CEO Mike Cannon-Brookes said in the memo. “This is primarily about adaptation. We are reshaping our skill mix and changing how we work to build for the future,” he added. “I believe this is the right decision for Atlassian. But that doesn’t mean it’s easy. Far from it. I know this has a huge impact on each of you, and it weighs heavily on me and Atlassian today,” CEO Cannon-Brookes said.“We are doing this to self-fund further investment in AI and enterprise sales, while strengthening our financial profile. We’re also changing the way we work and reorganising around our system of work to move faster,” he added.
Atlassian job cuts details
As announced by the company, the majority of the employees impacted by the layoff are in North America amounting to 40% of the total job cuts. This is followed by 30% in Australia and 16% in India. In a filing, Altassain revealed that the cuts will result in $225 million to $236 million in charges and should be mostly done by the end of June this year. According to a Forbes report, the company says it will go beyond severance requirements in every region, with a minimum 16-week separation package for those affected by the latest layoffs. The company also announced the exit of its CTO Rajeev Rajan, who it said will step down effective March 31.
