Proofpoint lays off 280 workers as tech cuts jobs

The cybersecurity company is cutting around 280 jobs worldwide, or 6% of its total workforce of 4,500, according to local media reports in Israel.

Proofpoint is owned by Thoma Bravo, an American private equity firm, which acquired it for $12.3 billion in 2021 – but word of the layoffs first emerged in Israel, where 20 workers will reportedly be among those fired.

“To position Proofpoint for continued and long-term success as a world-class business operating at scale, we have made the difficult decision to reduce our current workforce by about 280 positions globally,” the company told Israeli media outlet Calcalist.

Proofpoint joins what appears to be a growing list of cybersecurity companies to announce layoffs already this year, two others being Orca Security and Trend Micro.

The cybersecurity job cuts appear to echo similar announcements this year by other tech firms: software company SAP is shedding 8,000 employees, or 7% of the workforce, PayPal reduced its labor force by 2,500 (9%), Microsoft shrank by 1,900 employees, and Unity laid off 1,800 (25%).

On top of that, Google, eBay, Flipkart, Wayfair, and Block have each parted with 1,000 employees or more.

Data tracker Layoffs.fyi statistics reveal that in January, tech companies laid off more employees than in any single month since last March. This translates to almost 29,000 people losing their jobs, four times more than the previous month.

However, current layoffs pale in comparison to a year earlier. In January 2023, a record number of 90,000 tech workers lost their jobs.