What's their track record as it relates to companies that Thoma Bravo acquires?
Do they cut payroll swiftly?
How's your experience?
Disclosure: I am not with Riverbed, I am with another company that recently got acquired by Thoma Bravo and now we fear that Thoma Bravo will do layoffs here.
Thanks!
Did they offer voluntary redundancies or just come through and cut from anywhere?
Went through this with a major software company in the MSP space. Some of us got paid because of our private stocks. That was the only good thing. After they fired our CEO,. Sorry he stepped down 🙄. Then from there in the newly promoted CEO. Only term he knows is EBITDA nothing else. All you ever heard on company update calls from takeover day forward. Culture died. There are virtually no old guard that built the success left. Such a sad toxic tale of private equity. If you see them coming look for you pay day out and bail. Any company culture you had will be removed and replaced with cheap offshore labor.
Stamps dot com was acquired by Thoma Bravo fall of 2031. They and all subsidiaries are now branded as Auctane. Most of the executive team resigned, not a good sign. Shortly after, there was an all hands meeting and employees were told there would not be any layoffs.
Guess what? Not long after, the company had its first round of layoffs.
Anyone working for a company acquired by Thoma Bravo seriously needs to get out. They don’t care about employees.
Yes they do and I can tell u that they purchased a tech company and the whole Irish team is gone... so when u hear that they purchased ur company ,get your tickets and out ... seriously the don't see humans as people but as a liability and just a number plus the redundancy packages are sh-t as well as the notice period... they have a team of lawyers who know how to play with the law...
Well, all of QAD Support USA was let go today, technically some of us are employed till June 1. It was a great run, however years of hard work and read a script to tell me I am effectively being let go. Bad taste in my mouth.
Don't understand why there is no rule/law to punish "Thoma Bravo" such kind of evil company.
The QAD house cleaning has started at the top with the CIO, CFO, SVP of R&D Allocation network and Services.
I think a lot of companies right now are relying on attrition to reduce head count. It's certainly a lot cheaper than RIFS, but very risky. The smart companies are targeting employees with retention bonuses and letting the rest slide. TB and Riverbed are mostly focusing on retaining managers and letting "regular" employees go without regard to talent or institutional knowledge.
TB took over ownership of QAD In November and although a layoff hasn’t happened yet a lot of the senior talent is leaving on their own. QAD was known for its rich culture and family feel unfortunately that culture left on the day the acquisition was announced. QAD is a proprietary solution held together by their employees, it should be interesting to see how QAD fairs with TB watching all the brains leaving the company to hire inexpensive bodies around the globe.
Riverbed is another example. Several rounds of layoffs and finally TB ran it into the ground. Ended up to be bankrupt.
Vulture Capital does not allow dollar for dollar matching at all companies. Only those companies they project to NEED money will have that opportunity. Perfect example - ABC Financial.
J Bott had a license to print money and TB ran it into the ground.. they blamed covid and used that to accelarate workforce reducations while hiring offshore talent at a 3 to 1 rate, completely offshoring whole divisions. Gym owners that uses their billing service, you're sending money overseas. Expect no attention as a client of theirs unless your name starts with planet and ends with fitness.
"if you perform you will be taken care of?" Congrats on that 0.75% raise... was it worth missing your kids birthday party or putting in 85 hours a week?
Also.. keep in mind when talking about security and solarwinds.. this is the company that helped cause that... how much information does your gym have on you in that contract you signed? Are you sure you want Thoma Bravo to have that?
Thoma Bravo bought Barracuda Networks, made the workplace completely unfriendly and destroyed what little soul there was left, ALL of the best talent has left, and replacements are being hired in India with virtually no training whatsoever. If you even own a Barracuda product at this point, you should seriously consider finding an alternative before the ship is completely sunk.
Run as fast as you can -- don't trust any thing, any bonus plan, stock employee investment opportunities, etc, TB tells you. Those guys lie/cheat.
I fully learned why they are called Vulture Capital -- they take whatever they can from investors, from employees.
Perfect post @oFpbf
They won't lay you off, but by the end you will wish they had. Seriously. Record and conversations you have with them and get everything in writing.
The TB strategy is much worse than layoffs. They put employees in such horrible situations that turnover is unbelievable. The department I am in went from very low single digit turnover annually to >50% in the first six months. All the best people leave.
Domestic job postings exist, but nobody is ever hired. It's a smoke screen of lies to make the company appear to be growling while they are in reality massively downsizing. You are allowed to hire overseas resources, but they even low-ball the overseas people so badly that there is massive attrition.
TB will promise you equity, but problems will keep coming up and you will never actually have it. It's just to string you along.
If you have a bonus in your employment agreement, expect to be set up for failure with all of your metrics. Bonus are not delivered.
When my company got acquired I knew it would be a bumpy ride, but these people are the sc-m of the earth.
Attrition and offshoring- They just wait to see who is left standing. They acquired RealPage and everyday more people leave and are not replaced. Nothing is getting done, and no one seems to care.
I worked at a company acquired by Thoma Bravo. We didn't see layoffs but did see massive attrition (20-30%) as anyone leaving wouldn't be replaced. The biggest issue here was that the majority of people who left were solid employees.
So in my experience - no layoffs, but plenty of restructuring/attrition with backfills promised but never delivered.
Thoma Bravo recently acquired Realpage and more than 10% was laid off during the 1st round, a 2nd round just laid off 600 more people. Lets see how many more peoples lives they mess up!!! Corporate Greed!!! THEY DONT CARE ABOUT YOUR FAMILIES, NO MORALS WITH THIS COMPANY!!
RealPage was recently acquired and during the shopping period, the company fired 10% of workforce. My team was not affected but let’s hold that thought.
You bet they do, a least at Hyland. Eliminated a lot of people during the acquisition and more after the acquisition. They just laid off 140+ at the end of January 2021. All jobs going to India. JP didn’t have the guts to relay the message in person. Prerecorded zoom message.
https://www.wkyc.com/article/news/local/what-matters-most/former-hyland-software-employee-layoffs/95-fbde1cbe-806a-4424-a0ad-abf9ff8fb66a
https://www.clevescene.com/scene-and-heard/archives/2021/01/28/westlake-based-hyland-software-lays-off-nearly-150-employees-outsourcing-jobs-to-india-poland
Hey, but here is an excerpt from their core values. Pure vomit.
“FAMILY
Our employees are our family.
We care deeply for one another and help each other achieve maximum personal potential while maintaining a healthy work-life balance”
For the clients, if you don’t see your product listed on the website, I suspect it’s not a go forward product. Start saving for future switching costs and training for another product.
Fair... I'm not a Riverbed employee so can't speak to their performance. I work for a different TB company and it's definitely 6x-10x. I was answering a general question by one of the previous posters. Obviously, your mileage may vary based upon your company and company performance.
I don't know what you are smoking, but please share. That's some strong stuff. Riverbed went private six years ago. That's when people made real money. I bought back in too but luckily was forced to sell everything when I left. I made the guaranteed 9% on the class A shares. The class B shares were worth pennies. There is no way those shares have gained value based on the company's results. There is NO WAY you will ever see a 6 - 10x return.
Replying to: "Can anybody comment on equity they were granted after a TB acquisition and if it makes worth sticking around worth it if you are a performer?"
In short, yes, absolutely. What is cool about Thoma Bravo (TB) is that for the employees that are there at time of acquisition, they let you invest along side of them dollar for dollar. Your investment is at the the same level as TB's – it is not subordinate, etc. But, it's a one time deal at the start and is generally cashed out at time of sale.
This makes sense from a TB perspective to offer this up as it gives employees some ownership of the company for when they come in hacking and slashing – good way to keep the remaining employees moving forward. They do cut 10% immediately and more over the period of ownership...
I stuck in a large chunk of $$ knowing that our CEO and TB wouldn't fail on flipping the biz for a sizeable profit. We are talking a 6 to 10 times return on money over a period of 3 to 5 years.
And, honestly, had I not invested in this I would have got the heck out of there after the first year because they work us all to the bone... understaffed, perks slowly elminated, etc. I feel bad for the employees that didn't put in the investment funds to start with but are having to deal with low staffing levels and cut benefits.
The investment aspect will make it all worth it in the end... 3 to 5 years of reasonably hard work for 6 to 10 times is a fair enough sacrifice. I'd be willing to do this once more...
At least for my company, executive management has stock grants (of course). And, other key role's also got stock options. but it's few and far between.
My advice... definitely go in on the investment if offered... and go BIG!!
I went reasonably big... but wish I had gone bigger!
Hope this helps...
Can anybody comment on equity they were granted after a TB acquisition and if it makes worth sticking around worth it if you are a performer?
TB acquires > within 1 week, ~10% reduction. Covid was a godsend to TB because it gave them an excuse to accelerate their "attrition" plans; those being that they create a toxic environment where nobody's job feels safe, and then they just don't rehire people that quit, not in the US anyway. They blow up hiring in India and other countries where they can get away with paying 3k/person/year and literally flood your company with unrefined, low quality talent.
Yes, agree with all of the others. 10% within first month followed by attrition (not replacing people that quit) and benefit cuts. And, if there is ever a bad quarter can plan on more permanent layoffs.
TB values their portfolio companies based upon EBITDA. As TB is a private equity firm, they are in this to make money and maximize the returns for their investors. It's just how it goes.
If you don't want to deal with this... then best to just move on and find a new job.
I work for a TB company at the present time. Literally can't wait for them to move the company on to the next owner. :) Will be a happy day indeed.
Layoffs are part of their play.
They do what the previous management was unwilling to do.
Nothing is sacred...
Thoma Bravo bought Solar Winds in 2016 took it public in 2019 but retained 88 percent of the company and 3 board seats. Talent has bailed as TB does its usual greedy cutting of benefits and pay. Solar Winds left with 2nd rate talent and now the country has been placed in possibly the most dangerous position it has ever seen with the hack of Solar Winds.
Private equity is destroying this company. Time to begin k–ling off private equity vultures.
Instructure has been hit in the same fashion as others mentioned. Layoffs after 3 months being acquired. Huge slash to benefits. To help subside growing pains, they did hire a large amount of part timers because it costs less compared to full timers. We've lost a couple dozen of solid employees that it impacted us negatively. Engineer, Sales, Customer Success operations has all been hit pretty hard. It seems all the reason behind it is due to to one goal: make profit. Though our company has acquired a large amount of sums to 'reach our goals', it seems Thoma Bravo wants to squeeze every last penny before we're sold off, which we all know that will be their end game. This is depressing to say the least.
Its all about money. Layoffs, massive numbers of people quitting, lies and whatever else it takes to make a buck. They do not care what hardships they create for whats left of the workforce.
Thoma Bravo acquired AxiomSL from TCV :( the rumour mill is already talking about a big cull. The CFO has been analyzing the business since he joined in 2019 and sees a lot of downsizing potential across the business. He thinks too many veterans and wage bill is far too high. They have already been looking to offshore more work, so London and NYC will be hit hard. With London not having an office; the emotional impact will be low, so UK first we think. Happy holidays....
Same experience here with TB. They’re all about their ensuring they meet their agreements with their clients. Their view of any company they invest in is to extract money regardless of the performance of the company. If you’re a company under performing then expect cost cutting measures (lay offs, furloughs, etc) and don’t expect major investments in product. Reading this forum, Riverbed is under performing and, without investments in the right area that will provide growth, then this means TB wants you gone and already turned their backs on you.
I worked for a company that acquired by Thoma Bravo. They layed-off half the company and split it into two companies. They then realized that they layed-off too many people and attempted to hire me back, to which I said thanks, but no thanks. That was my experience with them. My team was k–ling it, but it didn't matter. Everyone is still works there is unhappy to be there. I see them at trade shows, and they ask if I'm hiring.
All they care about is money. I watched as almost 40% of the companies employees quit. Even during a pandemic, their only concern is to make money at any price.
They seem to have an MO. They layoff 10-15% within 6 weeks, slash benefits, then layoff another round in a few months.
Our group wasn't financially struggling. Sales rose double digits every year. We were lean in our spending as it was (I'm in a dev group and we had to be to spend $100.
My group is 72% of our SAAS revenue and had the highest functioning dev group among the entire company's 10 dev groups. They slashed us 50%. They slashed 4 of our 7 QA, slashed our entire automation team. Then the next day told the rest of us "lucky" enough to stay that they're eliminating yearly increases, holiday bonuses, then took 75% 401k match to 25%.
They didn't need to cut staff, especially during COVID where every other industry was hard hit but we weren't, but they did and sent people into a bad market.
If TB buys your company, run. Leave fast.
I don’t know what mailgun or mailjet is but laying off people is sometime necessary. Too many ineffective leaders tend to create an illusion of a weak workforce which tends to end in layoffs. The experience we are having is just this and already been through layoffs however TB knows (or should know) the real issues are with those “observe and report” (parroting) or the “last second / Just-in-time managers/ leaders that seems to skate by RIF’s because they do just enough to skate the chopping block. Hopefully mailgun/mailjet gets new, more modern, leadership because they can quickly tell who the BS artists are.
Mailgun part of the Thoma Bravo company portfolio based only in the US recently acquired Mailjet their European competitor with global reach and offices in many countries.
Not even a month later the ax is already flying.
In Canada the entire office is been shuttered and all employees have been laid off.
Just in time for Christmas, the Grinch lives.
Unable to find Mailgun or Mailjet listed among thelayoff companies so pass this info on as needed.
Many skilled IT/ops people now out in the cold looking for work.
Ohh yeahhh and the layoffs are given no justification for the who & why that person. Just some number cruncher outside consultant looking at the excel spreadsheets given to them. They won't tell you why you got selected to be laid off. Management will tell your left behind colleagues they had nothing to do with it, they had no say in the matter and are sad to see you go. They act like the borg came in and darn we were all just blindsided. But hey we are all in this mess together so let's now hold hands by the camp fire and make the most of it. Sadly with each round of layoffs (and you'll see multiple if you last) many of the butt kiss lickers, self promotors, incompetents and blowhards will keep making the cut.
If you perform, you’ll be taken care of. Lifers will have to take a hike.
Thoma Bravo Just bought AutoData this year and the layoffs have started
CEO gone
Business Leaders Laid off
People from the PM and other functional units laid off
1st wave of layoffs started, traditionally Thoa Bravo is notorious for such layoffs starting at 5-10% going up to 30% see their history
https://www.thelayoff.com/t/NdgZs-x
https://www.thelayoff.com/t/RZACyHy
https://www.thelayoff.com/t/rYofhuL
https://www.thelayoff.com/t/CAglHax
https://www.thelayoff.com/t/J97uMyn