Yann Coatanlem & Oliver Coste
February 25, 2024
Late 2022 and throughout 2023, large tech companies announced large restructuring plans on both sides of the Atlantic ocean.
Based on public information, mostly from the financial results of the companies, sometimes from their public announcements and from the press, we analysed the restructuring measures undertaken these groups in the USA and in Europe.
We compared the restructuring costs announced in their financial results with the number of laid off employees and with the average or median salaries reported by these companies. We then calculated the restructuring costs in terms of months of compensations, in order to appreciate the agility of companies on their respective continents.
In the USA, we found the following results:
Google (Alphabet): 7.5 months
Meta (Facebook): 4.2 months
Microsoft: 5.9 months
X (Twitter): 3 months
For all these companies, these figures are global and we assumed that the very large majority of the restructuring took place in the USA. If European laid off teams were significant, this would lead to shorter figures in the USA.
In Europe, we found the following results:
Nokia: 11 months worldwide. Based on the published allocation of Nokia's workforce per region, and assuming 6 months outside Europe, this leads to a 18 months figure for Nokia's European workforce.
SAP: 19 months worldwide. Based on the published allocation of SAP's workforce per region, and assuming 6 months outside Europe, we found 49 months for SAP's European workforce. This is not inconsistent with our experience of restructuring on a voluntary basis in Germany.
This issue needs to be analyzed in a more systematic way, as calculations based on public figures are worldwide aggregates and do not necessarily provide sufficient details to compare restructuring costs by country.
For more details, please see our methodology notes.