Australian software program big Atlassian will shed round 1600 jobs in a significant restructuring as synthetic intelligence involves the fore.
The corporate introduced that round 10% of roles will go. Its world workforce sits at round 16,000 individuals.
CEO Mike Cannon-Brookes despatched an e-mail to all employees 20 minutes earlier than these shedding their jobs had been knowledgeable by e-mail saying “I’ve made the extremely troublesome resolution to cut back the scale of our workforce by ~10%”
“We’re doing this to self-fund additional funding in AI and enterprise gross sales, whereas strengthening our monetary profile. We’re additionally altering the way in which we work and reorganising round our System of Work to maneuver quicker,” he advised them.
Cannon-Brookes mentioned “issues have modified” within the AI period.
“The bar for what ‘nice’”’ seems like for software program corporations – on progress, on profitability, on velocity, on worth creation – has gone up,” he mentioned.
“We’re selecting to adapt. Thoughtfully, decisively and shortly. To drive sturdy, worthwhile progress.”
The cofounder and CEO mentioned it was not an “AI replaces individuals” method.
“However it could be disingenuous to faux AI doesn’t change the combination of expertise we want or the variety of roles required in sure areas. It does,” he mentioned.
“That is primarily about adaptation. We’re reshaping our ability combine and altering how we work to construct for the longer term.”
Share worth perks up
Atlassian estimates restructure will price it round US$225-236 million, together with US$169-174m in worker severance prices and $56-62m in exit fees from workplace house reductions.
Whereas Cannon-Brookes painted a strong growth story in the loss-making company’s latest Q2 results, Atlassian’s share worth has been hammered over the previous yr, falling by two-thirds, and dropping 50% in 2026, shrinking the corporate’s market cap beneath US$20 billion – making it price lower than privately owned Canva.
Atlassian’s share worth rose round 2% in after hours commerce following the announcement.
It’s additionally wiped billions from the private wealth of cofounder Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar, chair of the Tech Council of Australia.
The most recent spherical of redundancies come after Atlassian shed Atlassian lower 150 roles, primarily in customer support and assist, final July, changed by AI, then an extra 200 roles in Europe in September.
Its final main restructure was this time three years ago when 500 roles were lost in a “rebalance”.
However Atlassian just isn’t alone in what’s being dubbed the “SaaSpocalypse” brought on by AI.
Final month Sydney-based logistics software company, WiseTech Global, introduced it was slicing 2,000 jobs, almost a 3rd of its world workforce throughout 40 international locations, as a part of a two-year AI-driven restructure. The Commonwealth Financial institution made 300 know-how roles redundant on the identical day and some days later world fintech Block said it would cut its workforce by 40%, shedding 4000 jobs
Cannon-Brookes concluded his message to employees saying that decisiveness was a part of the corporate’s success.
For over 20 years, we’ve demonstrated our sturdiness, our progress, and our resilience. We’ve constructed merchandise that hundreds of thousands of individuals depend on each single day,” he mentioned.
” We’ve navigated – and thrived via – a number of know-how shifts. A number of market cycles. And we are going to once more.
“This may require continuous adaptation. Decisiveness. And making laborious choices to set Atlassian up strongly for the long run.”
