Microsoft-owned GitHub lays off entire engineering team in India
GitHub, the popular software development company owned by Microsoft, has laid off the entire engineering team in India. A total of 142 engineers have been impacted by the layoff, and the employees were given two months of severance pay, per Business Today. Earlier in February, the company said it planned to lay off 10% of its global workforce to cut costs.
Why does this story matter?
The layoff season does not appear to be wearing off any time soon. Amid worsening global market conditions, several tech companies have decided to cut down on their workforce. The Microsoft-owned software firm is among the latest to follow suit. Microsoft also started cutting down its workforce in January this year, axing 10,000 jobs or about 5% of its total workforce.
Employees have been asked to sign NDA regarding severance benefits
The axed employees have been asked to sign a strict non-disclosure agreement (NDA) with regard to the severance benefits, reported Business Today. Reportedly, this layoff round affecting the entire engineering team in India was not based on the performance of employees. "Whole engineering team was asked to leave. Hundreds of engineers have been impacted. It was not performance related," a source told Business Today.
Workforce reductions part of 'difficult but necessary decisions'
GitHub has also confirmed the layoffs in an official statement. The company said, "As part of the reorganization plan shared in February, workforce reductions were made today as part of difficult but necessary decisions and realignments to both protect the health of our business in the short term and grant us the capacity to invest in our long-term strategy moving forward."
GitHub acquired by Microsoft in 2018
Prior to the announcement of the job cuts, the company's workforce was about 3,000. India is the company's second-largest developer base after the United States. The firm is said to have been picking pace in India, where it crossed 10 million users. Notably, Microsoft acquired GitHub in 2018. In October last year, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said that GitHub's annual revenue was $1 billion.
