Cybersecurity giant Malwarebytes this week laid off 100 employees as it prepares for a major restructuring that will see the business split into two, TechCrunch has learned.
The layoffs come almost exactly a year after Malwarebytes eliminated 14% of its global workforce.
A former employee who asked not to be named told TechCrunch that the layoffs come just weeks after the company’s chief product officer, chief information officer, and chief technology officer were let go.
An archived version of the Malwarebytes leadership page shows that these positions no longer exist at the company. Multiple posts on LinkedIn showed that a number of additional employees were laid off this week. One former Malwarebytes employee described the layoffs as “an unfortunate annual tradition.”
Malwarebytes CEO Marcin Kleczynski confirmed to TechCrunch that approximately 100 to 110 employees were let go this week, with the layoffs affecting predominantly corporate employees. Kleczynski also confirmed the company had made leadership changes as part of the “strategic reorganization.”
Kleczynski said the layoffs were part of a plan to separate the company into two separate business units, but denied that it planned to sell any part of the business.
The split — which was not previously made public — will see Malwarebytes separate its consumer and corporate-facing business units. The consumer business will focus on tools such as identity protection and VPN, while the remaining business will focus on enterprise-facing software like managed and endpoint detection, Kleczynski tells TechCrunch.
Full details of the split have not yet been finalized but will be announced in the coming weeks.
Kleczynski tells TechCrunch that the latest round layoffs, which affected Malwarebytes employees globally, were an exercise in rationalizing expenditures. Kleczynski said Malwarebytes continues to be “healthy and profitable.”
“A profitable business is a viable business.” Kleczynski said.
Malwarebytes isn’t the only cybersecurity company to make layoffs in recent months. Earlier this month, SecureWorks announced plans to let go of 15% of its workforce in order to deliver “profitable growth,” and Rapid7 also confirmed it was laying off 18% of its global workforce, affecting more than 400 employees.
