700 CyberArk employees to lose jobs after $25b exit

The day after the second largest ever acquisition in Israel’s tech trade was accomplished, many staff at CyberArk (Nasdaq: CYBR) headquarters in Israel, based mostly in Petah Tikva’s Azorim Park, opened their emails to find that the $25 billion acquisition by Palo Alto Networks (Nasdaq: PANW) had value them their jobs.

To mark completion of the acquisition, all staff obtained emails about their future position within the merged firm. An estimated 10% of CyberArk’s 1,000 staff in Israel and 700 staff worldwide had been notified that their positions can be canceled. The e-mail got here instantly from Palo Alto, in a generic and heartless fashion, and with no clear handle inside CyberArk to whom to contact. That is in keeping with staff.

The transfer, perceived by many staff as alienating and impersonal, raises questions concerning the human value of big tech offers in addition to the cultural distance between Israeli corporations and US tech giants. For a lot of staff who devoted years to constructing the corporate, this isn’t solely the top of an employment chapter but additionally a farewell to an organizational tradition they described as family-like and Israeli.

Beneficiant severance packages

What makes the transfer problematic within the eyes of many in Israel just isn’t solely its scale and timing, however primarily the style by which it was carried out. The emails had been despatched to staff instantly from Palo Alto, and never from CyberArk itself. Staff instructed “Globes” that some managers didn’t even know earlier than the layoffs which of the workers underneath them would obtain a layoff discover, and a few obtained discover of a brand new supervisor being appointed.

CyberArk staff stated that on the primary day of the merger, as an alternative of a welcome e-mail, they obtained an e-mail with the date of termination of their employment. Lots of them obtained three to 12 months’ discover of the efficient date of the cancellation of their place.

This methodology, of offering as much as a 12 months’s discover of the termination of employment, is completely different from that typically utilized in mergers and acquisitions. Though there’s a clear finish date, in follow staff should proceed to work as traditional, switch information to Palo Alto’s methods and groups, and preserve operational continuity.

Nonetheless, sources inform “Globes” that to stop untimely departures, the corporate is providing an elevated bonus to those that keep till the top of the interval set for them. Extra proof from the sphere speaks of severance packages of 4 to 5 salaries.

From a enterprise perspective, the tactic is smart. Palo Alto wants the know-how gained by CyberArk staff to conduct a clean integration of methods, processes, and applied sciences. Staff, for his or her half, are given a comparatively very long time to discover a new job and beneficiant compensation. Nonetheless, by way of private expertise and organizational tradition, the sensation is completely different. Staff describe a sense of alienation – being pressured to proceed working as traditional realizing that the corporate has already determined that they don’t have any future there, and that it’s now their job to coach their substitute.

In accordance with CyberArk staff, the layoffs have been clearly targeted on help departments and head workplace positions. Thus, staff describe a lower of about 50% of inside IT employees, and a considerable impression on the finance, human assets, advertising and marketing and gross sales departments. Staff instructed “Globes” that there have been no layoffs in R&D departments, however solely from help departments.

Staff additionally describe a profound cultural change that’s happening within the firm, “From the second of the merger, you are feeling how the Israeli actuality meets the US actuality,” one worker stated. The ache is particularly intense in relation to long-time staff. “They laid off long-time staff, individuals who had labored for 10-15 years,” Globes was instructed – individuals who constructed the corporate, who noticed it develop from a startup to a worldwide cybersecurity big price billions of {dollars}.

In accordance with staff, CyberArk has at all times been perceived as an organization with a distinctly Israeli character, heat, family-like and with a robust sense of belonging. They spoke of an organizational tradition that encourages private closeness and mutual care, of managers who know staff personally and of a way of “residence”. Now, the transition to the tradition of a big US company is perceived as breaking one thing elementary within the firm’s character. The sensation described is indifferent and impersonal.

Principal engine of progress

Only a day earlier than the wave of layoffs started, Palo Alto introduced will probably be itemizing for twin buying and selling on the Tel Aviv Inventory Trade (TASE), whereas persevering with to commerce on Nasdaq. The corporate selected to undertake the CYBR ticker, which was utilized by CyberArk, in a transfer meant, it stated, to draw Israeli traders and stress the significance of the Israeli heart for its operations. Palo Alto CEO Nikesh Arora has emphasised in public statements that the corporate sees CyberArk’s identification safety expertise as a “key progress engine” and intends to proceed investing in it and the R&D groups behind it.

However whereas Palo Alto declares its dedication to Israel and CyberArk’s expertise, it’s starting its joint journey with the Israeli firm with cutbacks that go away a bitter style on the Petah Tikva headquarters. It ought to be burdened that, in keeping with staff, the compensation packages are thought-about comparatively beneficiant by tech requirements; however there’s nice concern amongst these laid off concerning the future. A human assets worker stated that though she obtained “4 salaries prematurely” as compensation. “Nonetheless, in at the moment’s market, I do not assume I will be capable of discover a job within the coming 12 months,” she lamented.

This sense might replicate the fact of the tech market in 2026. A market the place hiring is slower than up to now, corporations are extra cautious about increasing groups, and competitors for workers, human assets, and administration positions is fierce.

The mixture of as much as a 12 months’s discover and a difficult market scenario creates a very complicated actuality: staff are required to keep up excessive professionalism and motivation, each to obtain the complete bonus and to keep away from damaging their skilled status, whereas they need to commit main time and vitality to looking for a brand new job, updating their resume, interviewing for jobs, and constructing a brand new community of contacts. The problem is to be a “good” worker till the ultimate day, to obtain the complete monetary reward, with the clear information that they don’t have any future within the group.

No response from Palo Alto Networks has been forthcoming.

Printed by Globes, Israel enterprise information – en.globes.co.il – on February 17, 2026.

© Copyright of Globes Writer Itonut (1983) Ltd., 2026.