Splunk to Cut About 325 Jobs, Scale Back Outsourcing

In October, The Wall Street Journal reported that activist investor Starboard Value LP had a stake in the company and planned to push the software maker to take action to boost its stock price.

The layoffs will be concentrated in North America, said Chief Executive

Gary Steele,

who took over less than a year ago. The company expects to book about $28 million in charges due to the plan.

Tech Layoffs Across the Industry: Amazon, Salesforce and More Cut Staff

The technology industry has cut thousands of jobs to start the year as companies such as Facebook parent Meta Platforms Inc.,

Microsoft Corp.

and more face the prospect of a slowing economy. On Tuesday,

PayPal Holdings Inc.

said that it would cut about 2,000 employees, or about 7% of its global workforce.

Mr. Steele said that proactive steps taken by Splunk over the past several months minimized the scale of the layoffs. He said the company is looking to optimize its cost structure and balance growth with profitability.

“One of our cost-reduction efforts has been to decrease Splunk’s reliance on external resources, such as agencies or consultants, to get work done,“ he said in a message to employees. “Moving forward we will be more judicious about what work we outsource and what we will stop doing.“

Mr. Steele said Splunk will continue to invest in areas such as customer engagement and innovation. He said the company will be recruiting in the year ahead, “consistent with our focus on accessing global talent in lower-cost areas.”

Write to Will Feuer at [email protected]