Which major tech companies have laid off workers in the NC Triangle? Here’s the list.
Epic Games, the Cary-based developer of popular games like Fortnite and Gears of War, announced Thursday, Sept. 28, that it will lay off around roughly 16% of its total staff.
It’s another blow to the Triangle’s tech force, whose layoffs have mirrored a national trend.
After going on hiring sprees across 2020 and 2021, technology companies nationwide have scaled back staff over the past year, as interest rates remain high and economic outlooks continue to be cloudy.
Earlier this year, Pendo, a Raleigh-based software provider, announced layoffs for the second time in nine months.
Here are the other major tech companies that have scaled back their Triangle area headcounts in the past year:
Epic Games, Sept. 28
Epic Games will lay off around 830 employees, according to an email that Epic CEO Tim Sweeney sent to staff.
In December, Epic told The News & Observer it had more than 1,000 employees report to its Cary headquarters. The company declined to share how many of the cuts affected workers based in Cary.
In his email to employees Thursday, Sweeney said there would not be further job cuts, writing “these changes financially stabilize the business.”
Epic will also sell Bandcamp, a music distribution platform Epic acquired in March 2022, Sweeney wrote.
Pendo, June 13
In early 2020, Pendo employed just over 400 people worldwide, a company spokesperson said. This figure rose to almost 1,000 by last year. The most recent round of reductions affected 12% of its global workforce on Monday. This included 42 people at Pendo’s downtown Raleigh headquarters.
Following this spring’s cuts, the company’s workforce is around 750.
Red Hat, Raleigh, April 24
Red Hat, the homegrown software company in Raleigh, informed employees it would lay off close to 4% of its global workforce. The company said cuts would be focused on administrative positions.
As of early March, Red Hat employed roughly 2,200 in the Triangle. It declined to share how many local workers the layoffs would impact.
Google, Durham, Jan. 20
Multiple Google employees told The News & Observer that several of their coworkers had been let go from Google Cloud’s downtown Durham office as part of broader companywide layoffs that affected around 12,000 people globally.
Lenovo, Research Triangle Park, Dec. 12, 2022
Lenovo confirmed companywide job cuts would affect its local workforce. The Hong Kong-based PC computer maker declined to say how many positions would be eliminated.
As of October, Lenovo employed around 5,100 people in the U.S., with its largest employee concentration in North Carolina.
Cisco, Research Triangle Park, Dec. 12, 2022
An employee at Cisco’s Morrisville campus told The News & Observer that she and several local colleagues were informed their positions would be eliminated as part of the company’s broader staff reductions.
In November, Cisco announced its global restructuring would affect around 4,000 employees, or 5% of its workforce.
Pendo, Raleigh, Sept. 12, 2022
Pendo, which had been among the fastest-growing software startups in North Carolina, confirmed it had eliminated 45 positions, which at the time represented roughly 5% of its global workforce. The company said less than half of the affected employees were based locally.
Avaya, Durham, Sept. 6, 2022
The telecommunications firm Avaya laid off an unspecified number of employees, who were informed via virtual calls with the company’s human resources department. Since then, Avaya has filed for bankruptcy, emerged as a private company, and relocated its headquarters out of the North Carolina Triangle.
This story was produced with financial support from a coalition of partners led by Innovate Raleigh as part of an independent journalism fellowship program. The N&O maintains full editorial control of the work.
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