Cybersecurity firm Malwarebytes cuts 100 jobs ahead of business split

NEW DELHI: US-based cybersecurity giant Malwarebytes has laid off 100 employees as it prepares for a major restructuring that will see the business split into separate companies, a media report said.

According to TechCrunch, citing sources, the job cuts come just weeks after the company’s chief product officer, chief information officer and chief technology officer were let go.

In addition, the layoffs come almost a year after Malwarebytes eliminated 14 per cent of its global workforce.

Several LinkedIn posts indicated that a number of additional employees were laid off this week. According to one former Malwarebytes employee, the layoffs were "an unfortunate annual tradition."

According to Malwarebytes CEO Marcin Kleczynski, about 100 to 110 employees were let go this week, with the layoffs affecting predominantly corporate employees.

He also confirmed the company had made leadership changes as part of the "strategic reorganisation", the report mentioned.

Moreover, Kleczynski stated that the layoffs were part of a plan to split the company into two separate business units, but he denied that any part of the company would be sold.

The split will see Malwarebytes separate its consumer and corporate-facing business units.

According to the CEO, the consumer business will focus on tools such as identity protection and VPN, while the remaining business will focus on enterprise-facing software such as managed and endpoint detection, the report said.

Kleczynski further mentioned that the latest round of job cuts, which affected Malwarebytes employees globally, was an exercise in rationalising expenditures.

Meanwhile, cybersecurity company SecureWorks has announced to lay off 15 per cent of its workforce, in its second round of job cuts this year.

In a regulatory filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), SecureWorks said that it would incur about $14.2 million in expenses due to the layoffs.