Zoho’s Sridhar Vembu Takes a Dig at Freshworks Layoffs, Calls It “Naked Greed”

Freshworks said that it laid off 13 per cent of its workforce as a part of their initiative to realign their global workforce

Outlook Start-Up Desk

Updated on: 8 November 2024 2:55 pm

Sridhar Vembu, Founder and CEO of Zoho Corp

Zoho, an Indian multinational technology company’s founder Sridhar Vembu, attacked cash-rich and Nasdaq-listed firm Freshworks over its decision to layoffs employees on Friday. Although he didn’t mention Freshworks in the post on the social media platform X, he hinted the criticism was for the company.

“A company that has $1 billion cash, which is about 1.5 times its annual revenue, and is actually still growing at a decent 20 per cent rate and making a cash profit, laying off 12-13 per cent of its workforce, should not expect any loyalty from its employees ever,” said Vembu on X.

Attacking the company for its move, he said greed is the driving force behind the job-cut decision by Freshworks.

“I can understand the unfortunate reality of layoffs when a business is struggling or declining and making a loss. This is not that situation, this is naked greed, nothing less,” he added.

Just a day ago, Freshworks announced that it laid off 13 per cent of its workforce as a part of their initiative to realign their global workforce.

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“To add more focus on our EX, AI and CX priorities, we are realigning our global workforce, putting us on a path to have bigger impact for our customers,” said Freshworks CEO Dennis Woodside in a statement regarding the layoff.

Normally the companies struggling with finances decide to layoff workers; it's rare to see a cash-rich company making such moves. In fact, in the third quarter results, Freshworks’ revenue grew by 22 per cent to $186.6 million.

This isn’t the first time that Zoho is behind Freshworks. The two companies were involved in a legal battle in the US. Zoho’s Vembu accused Freshworks founder Girish Mathrubootham of stealing confidential data and trade secrets and filed a lawsuit against him in 2020. Later during the proceedings, Freshworks founder admitted the allegations of data stealing, including unauthorised access to the customer relationship management (CRM) and using the make for his company. Consequently, the case was settled in 2021.