HPE completed the SimpliVity purchase last Friday (17/2), and then today laid off at minimum 70-100 people in marketing, product management, and field sales among other groups. Because of people being on holiday, and how many remote employees there are, the true number isn't known yet, and executives refuse to say how many.
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You know, I've got nothing good to say about what became of Simplivity. It didn't live up to the dreams I had for it.
That said, there's comments about cars in the parking lot here. I'd suggest everyone equating presence in the office with effort Google "VPN". I was rarely in the office at 6pm, but I put in more hours than damn near anyone you've ever met during my tenure at Simplivity. Criticism of where my car was-- 1984 called, they want their work environment back.
Paltry, yes. However, it is the system of hire and fire. As soon as you get hired start to count on get fired. Even the giant HPE will follow up one day :-)
It would be good to see where how the funds that were at the discretion of the CEO were dispurrsed top 1% ? The $ paid to those not in the money was so paltry as to be an insult why even bother.
If you wanted to study how not to sell a company and how not to assimilate a company this would be the study for you.
I pity those at Nimble
"Nearly the entire workforce was either laid off on Friday or will be gone at the end of October."
WTH does that mean?
Wonder where Doron is?
"Even shares that were only promised are in the money."
If by in the money you mean I can buy a cheap suit then sure we're in the money.
He was a liar and I'm glad he's gone.
Best not to be around people that are pissed at you for screwing them.
SimpliVity is a good company with a good product. Under pressure of investors managers making big mistakes by hiring peoples until overload. Headless planning....
HPE the well known technology subverter took the chance.
that would be a great point, if the parking lot hadn't usually been mostly empty at 8 am, too.
I remember an EDS manager complaining that the the office was always empty by 6pm.
Our response was we never saw him in at 8am.
For all the talk of 60+ hour weeks, the parking lot at headquarters was awfully empty almost every night by 5:30 PM... while some were undoubtedly working the long hours, there were plenty of people who seemed to view the big payday as inevitable.
Glassdoor makes their money from job postings, for example HPE pays GD to post job openings there. They also collect from "branded review pages" - meaning that HPE can pay GD to administer the main page on GD. So, they have a vested interest in playing nice with the employers.
layoffs.com here is free for all kind of, they nuke posts but only if you are not following the content rules listed below /footer/
Glassdoor removes them all the time, yes indeed! I have not seen that here, though, except (perhaps) for gross violations (name-calling other posters too much). Glassdoor, though? Big-time!!! It is because Glassdoor takes money for advertising jobs... They know which side their bread is buttered on... You can write them civil and well-written (and true!) and get them yanked anyway... And you can only post one review per year, at Glassdoor! Now, if you use a new email account every time you post, and use "new incognito window" mode in Google Chrome browser, though, your new post MIGHT stay up a while... If their job-advertisers "approve of your message", that is!
"They" are removing replies "they" don't like. Reminiscent of when SimpliVity employees were told at an All Hands meeting that if they write a positive review on Glassdoor, the employee would receive a gift.
"They did the same with DEC, Compaq, and EDS (at the very least), they are just alot more callous about it now more than ever before."
Every time Meg has to produce results, HPE buys another company and then uses the resulting financial deal to obfuscate the details of her poor performance. She's like Gordon Gecko in a schoolmarm's body. HP and little ferret faced Mark Hurd took over EDS and drove out what was left of Ross Perot's era. But I also feel empathy for our colleagues who are old time HP employees, from the time of Bill and Dave. Like EDS, HP had a strong ethical culture that was stomped down by CEOs starting with Carly Fiorina and resulting in the mess we are in today. So many layoffs, companies bought and splintered to satisfy the greed of a string of failed CEO's. It's just sad.
No doubt a startup is a huge risk,Doron was happy to be seen as the captain of the ship he must catch a little flack for the course it took in the end.
Doron made some cash he worked for it not as much as he hoped for.
The investors probably broke even /made small profit,the end users have got continued support,those lucky enough to have a large quantity of share's in the money probably make a reasonable sum if not the riches they dreamed of.Those 60+ hour a week people are left wondering was it worth it, looking at Nutanix share price and asking was it not worth a gamble.in short it probably was the correct choice for the majority of stakeholders but you cannot begrudge those who were left standing after the music stopped.
Doron did not care about you or your families no more then Meg he used you he paid you,when he needed more work he pushed the dream of IPO to make you work faster for no more cost in the race between IPO, bankrupcy,sale sale won.if we had IPO we would see him as the visionary he sees himself as, I hope he enjoys the opera.
This is what everyone signed up for when they signed on. I did not expect much less. It is a risky venture when you join a startup. At least SimpliVity got bought out instead of going bankrupt, in which case everyone would be in worse shape. Everyone should have seen the writing on the wall after the layoffs a year ago. I did and left at the right time. Best of luck to everyone.
"because you lied to our faces time and time again"
At least you won't have to worry about that with HPE. They don't care enough about you to lie to you.
Yeah the 60+ hour weeks were pitched as being worth it for going IPO. Doron told us, "the work will be worth it, your families will understand when we go IPO". That was during the Q3 All-Hands.
The Executives, from Doron on down told us that we'd be taken care of. Our stock options aren't worth anything, because almost all of them were underwater (and as such they've been invalidated). Then today, people were given their HPE offers, which seem to be overwhelmingly in the category of transitional through the end of October.
Good job of taking care of your employees, Doron. The charity principle doesn't apply to you here, because you lied to our faces time and time again. You made a big deal about taking care of employees, and then you take your payout and leave the rest of us screwed. So much for being a man of integrity.
His final words to us, "make present decisions and actions in a manner that, retroactively, 5-10 years down the road, I will look upon as ethical and moral."
The way you treated your employees was certainly ethical and moral, right? Nearly the entire workforce was either laid off on Friday or will be gone at the end of October.
Sorry for the guys doing 60 hour + weeks who were fed the dream of IPO understaffed by design.
Removed the food.
Call it what it is a cash out before cash was out but don't sell it as a great thing for the staff alot of whom were layed off.
Communication was terrible.
Hopefully HPE won't kill the product.
Congratulations deal closed.
"Meg is building a platform for her upcoming presidential run."
I, for one, wish her all the success that she had in running for Governor. I wonder if she's decided on which party yet?
"Does HPE understand that there are other ways to improve profitability without messing with people's livelihoods?"
Sorry, but NO she doesn't.
Ironically, HPE announced earnings the same day as the SimpliVity layoffs. The stock tanked 8% last Friday as the company failed to meet earnings expectations. More layoffs are almost a certainty if the past is any indicator. Does HPE understand that there are other ways to improve profitability without messing with people's livelihoods?
Meg is building a platform for her upcoming presidential run.
If you found the HPE buyout of SimpliVity surprising you haven't been paying attention at work.
@M0fcT6S He lied to me to my face not twp weeks before the HPE purchase was announced. "No, we're not selling to anyone, our goal is to IPO later this year".
If you were/are an SVT employee, I hope you made it through today, and wish you the best in your job search either way.
@M0fcT6S None of us are surprised, but the layoffs hit a lot harder than some of of thought they would at first.
But Doron promised everything would be just fine... :)
If anybody at SimpliVity is surprised by this, they have not watched what HP/HPE has done over and over. They did the same with DEC, Compaq, and EDS (at the very least), they are just alot more callous about it now more than ever before.