The builder of internet and networking technology says it will cut about 5 percent of its workforce as part of a move away from some older lines of business and toward software and cybersecurity products.
F5 Networks is laying off about 230 people, about 5 percent of its workforce, a move the Seattle internet and networking infrastructure company says is part of a strategy shift toward sales of cloud-computing and cybersecurity products.
The cuts will cost the company between $23 million and $25 million, mostly in severance payments, F5 disclosed in a securities filing on Wednesday. The company will also close its office in Lowell, Mass. An F5 recruiting website says 200 employees work in Lowell.
Rob Gruening, an F5 spokesman, declined to say how many cuts would fall on employees at the company’s Seattle headquarters, which is home to about 30 percent of F5’s workforce. Gruening said the company was accelerating its hiring to support newer lines of business.
The cuts were disclosed as the company reported quarterly earnings on Wednesday. F5 pulled in a profit of $122.7 million during the three months ended in June, up from $97.6 million a year earlier. Revenue was $542 million, up 4.8 percent.
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The company hired a new chief executive, François Locoh-Donou, in 2017, after a search that stretched for more than a year. The company also is planning to take over all of the office space of one of Seattle’s biggest skyscrapers, to be named the F5 tower, in 2019.