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Rackspace Technology to Lay Off 4% of Employees

Rackspace Technology, a San Antonio, Texas-based technology firm, has announced a round of layoffs to its global workforce.

The company informed employees at its offices around the world that it will lay off approximately 4% of its workforce, My San Antonio reported. Rackspace declined to provide a specific number of jobs that will be cut, but Express-News reports that it could be as many as 275 positions.

The news comes amid a difficult time for the company, which in December 2022 saw its market capitalization fall below $1 billion for the first time since approximately 2015 following a hosted Exchange ransomware attack that knocked out email service to some Rackspace customers.

Rackspace Layoffs: Executive Commentary

Casey Shilling, chief marketing officer, Rackspace, released a comment on the layoffs:

“Like so many companies that are feeling the effects of the macroeconomic downturn, Rackspace is no exception. During this uncertain time, it is important that we align our cost structure to the demands of the business. This requires some elimination of roles across the company.”

Shilling said the company will provide severance and other resources to those who are laid off.

Rackspace reported in March having 6,800 employees in 23 countries, including 3,100 in North America.

Tech & IT Layoffs

Rackspace is only the latest in a string of companies to announce layoffs. Economic uncertainty has caused many technology firms to make cutbacks.

After a company-wide reorganization earlier this year, business software maker Atlassian said it was laying off 5% of its workforce in March 2023. Cloud security vendor Zscaler spent 18 months doubling the size of its workforce before announcing it would cut 3% of its 5,900 employees – about 177 workers – also in March 2023. And Veeam yesterday announced it would cut 3.8% of its workforce.

Late last year, both HP and Amazon announced a range of cuts to their respective workforces.

Those followed 11,000 job cuts at Facebook parent Meta; a massive 50% Twitter staff cut; and targeted job cuts continue across a range of cloud, security and SaaS-focused companies.