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Citrix and Tibco staff report sweeping redundancies

Future is cloudy at the Cloud Software Group

After months of speculation, job cuts appear to have commenced at the Cloud Software Group (CSG) – the company formed by the odd couple merger of Citrix and Tibco.

Tibco has been owned by Vista Equity Partners since 2014. In 2021 Vista swooped on Citrix with a $16.5 billion bid. Then it announced the two would be combined as CSG, with former Broadcom Software supremo Tom Krause signing up to lead the new entity.

The transaction concluded in September 2022 and speculation quickly emerged about job cuts. Which was not unreasonable, because when organizations merge they almost always have some duplicated back-office functions.

But staff at Citrix also speculated that some of its products could be axed, de-emphasized, or spun out, and that those actions could be the source of job cuts.

As the deal closed, The Register kept an eye on sites like The Layoff during the weeks after the merger concluded. We found expressions of worry about job cuts, and eventually some expressions of relief that not even private equity would be so heartless as to announce job cuts a couple of weeks before Thanksgiving, or in the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

But the holidays are over, and on Tuesday the axe appears to have fallen.

A thread on The Layoff suggests staff at Citrix and Tibco were advised to attend a webinar during which cuts were announced.

We understand that jobs were lost around the world, with claimed job losses reaching three figures. Other reports suggest thousands of jobs were lost. Accounts we've seen suggest cuts were made to sales and marketing, and to some technology development roles, too.

The Register has asked Citrix and CSG to enumerate the cuts, but has not received a response at the time of writing. We've also asked about where the cuts were made, in the hope of learning about CSG's priorities and strategy.

The biz has already shown its hand by re-establishing NetScaler as an independent brand, after Citrix packaged it as a product. Other Citrix products have also been given distinct identities and "membership" of the Group.

But CSG has not detailed its plans for Citrix. The Group also admitted during the merger process that it did not yet have a plan for how Citrix and Tibco might operate together. It said those arrangements would be worked out once the merger deal was done.

And here we are, three months later, with still no word on CSG's plans or structure – other than what appears to be a very strong likelihood that the combined orgs now employ many fewer people and have therefore reduced costs.

Whether they have also reduced offerings, and capabilities, remains to be seen. ®

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