Mike Cannon-Brookes revealed after the US market closed this morning (AEST) that the company’s chief technology officer (CTO) Rajeev Rajan was among the 1600 people, or about 10% of its workforce, being laid off by Australian software giant Atlassian. The company said they are adapting to the new AI era, a very similar narrative to recent moves by WiseTech Global (WTC) and Jack Dorsey’s Block Inc.
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“It would be disingenuous to pretend AI doesn’t change the mix of skills we need or the number of roles required in certain areas,” Cannon-Brookes said. “It does.”
Atlassian initially rose ~2% in after-market US trade but it seems to have reminded the local market that the “AI Disruption Trade” hasn’t gone away, it was taking a rest, with steep losses this morning across the local software names from SiteMinder (SDR) -8%, to Catapult (CAT) -6.6% and Xero (XRO) -5.7%.
In line with this morning’s AM Report MM believes this new leg lower will take most ASX tech stocks to new 2026 lows where we are likely to increase our overall sector exposure.
