UIPDATE 8/3: For more, check out Inside the ExpressVPN Layoffs: Taking a Page Out of Elon Musk's Playbook?
Original Story:The parent company to ExpressVPN, Private Internet Access, and CyberGhost VPN, says its laid off 180 employees amid a corporate reorganization.
ExpressVPN CTO Dan Gericke has posted on LinkedIn about leaving Kape Technologies, saying the company had “decided to retrench a portion" of its global workforce.
In recent days, several other Kape employees also posted on LinkedIn about being laid off. About a month ago, ExpressVPN co-founder Peter Burchhardt announced he had left Kape, too.
In an email, Kape confirmed the layoffs, but the company only offered a vague explanation for the job cuts. “To ensure we are set up in the long term to continue providing our customers with the best protection in the industry, we recently conducted an organizational restructuring, including making the difficult decision to let some employees go,” a Kape spokesperson said. “This decision was not taken lightly, and the business is actively engaging with those who have been impacted to help ease the transition.”
In an updated statement that PCMag was made aware of Saturday morning, Kape said 180 staffers in redundant roles were let go, or "around 12% of our workforce."
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"The restructuring impacted teams across the organization, including project/program managers, talent acquisition, HR, design, IT, support, operations, engineering, and marketing," the company said, later adding: "We want to emphasize that this outcome is in no way a reflection of current business performance, but is to prepare ourselves to grow faster in the coming months and years. By proactively addressing these challenges now, we can lay the foundation for a leaner and more resilient organization and be better equipped to seize new opportunities in the cybersecurity space."
The job cuts could stir up concerns that Kape is cutting back on its various VPN services, which have received positive reviews. But the company told PCMag that its team still numbers in the hundreds. "We’re already hard at work delivering the next generation of technology, innovation, and advanced protection for our users and raising the bar for privacy and security across the digital landscape,” Kape added.
Still, PCMag learned of the layoffs via an email from someone who claims to work at ExpressVPN who expressed concern that the VPN provider’s performance will suffer as a result. According to the email, Kape laid off 200 staffers in Hong Kong, Singapore, and London, including engineers and quality assurance specialists.
Kape Technologies bought ExpressVPN in 2021. Israeli billonaire Teddy Sagi then formally acquired Kape and took it private in May through a company called Unikmind Holdings. If you know more about the situation at Kape, let us know.
Editor's note: The story has been updated after Dan Gericke removed a line in his LinkedIn post that claimed the company had “decided to retrench” about 30% of its global workforce.