GitLab To Cut 7 Percent Of Workforce In Layoffs

‘The current macroeconomic environment is tough,’ GitLab CEO Sid Sijbrandij says in a post online.

Development operations (DevOps) vendor GitLab will conduct layoffs, cutting about 7 percent of employees, which is potentially more than 100 workers.

Sid Sijbrandij, CEO of San Francisco-based GitLab, blamed the cuts on the macroeconomic environment in a post online Thursday.

“The current macroeconomic environment is tough, and as a result, companies are still spending but they are taking a more conservative approach to software investments and are taking more time to make purchasing decisions,” Sijbrandij said.

[RELATED: 10 Hot DevOps Companies To Watch In 2023]

GitLab Announces Layoffs

He continued: “I had hoped reprioritizing our spending would be enough to withstand the growing global economic downturn. Unfortunately, we need to take further steps and match our pace of spending with our commitment to responsible growth.”

Last year, GitLab reported that it had about 1,630 employees in more than 68 countries as of Jan. 31, 2022. Assuming its current workforce is about that size, 7 percent of the company is 114 employees cut. The company has been 100 percent remote since inception.

Sijbrandij’s comments on slower customer spending echo those of large tech vendors including Microsoft, Amazon and Salesforce.

Executives have said the tech industry saw an increased demand for digital tools during the height of the pandemic, but demand is moderating. Growing inflation in the United States and the potential for a recession are also factors in the layoffs across the tech sector.

Other vendors who have announced layoffs in recent days include Zoom, Dell Technologies, Okta, Autodesk, Splunk, Secureworks and Cyren.

GitLab rival GitHub also announced layoffs Thursday, with up to 10 percent of the company facing layoffs.

GitLab reported its latest quarterly earnings in December. For the third quarter of its fiscal year – a quarter that ended Oct. 31 – GitLab brought in $113 million in revenue. Using generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP), GitLab reported an operating loss of $57 million.

Still, GitLab has remained a hot name in the DevOps space with CRN putting the company on its 10 Hot DevOps Companies To Watch In 2023. A recent KeyBanc survey named GitLab as among the most strategic DevOps vendors outside of Microsoft offerings GitHub and Azure DevOps.

And GitLab has made several announcements that position it well as a major DevOps player in 2023, including the Cloud Seed capability, which aims to simplify how developers procure and consume Google Cloud services, and enhancements to its security and governance offerings.

GitLab also has a channel partner program for resellers, managed services providers, integrators and other partner types.