[msteffen]

I wonder if some of these CEOs are anticipating a big crash and trying to lay people off now, so that (1) they can raise/hoard cash while the money-go-round is spinning and (2) their eng organization is already lean and used to it if/when the money-go-round stops.

“Because of AI” indeed.

[kev009]

I think it's just the relative cost of money. Credit, debt, raises, revenue all rely on it. The tech industry got used to zero interest rate and then Covid-era stimulus. Now, suddenly, cashflow matters, but the companies are still run by the same people that only know perception management. Eventually they too will get cycled out.

[Ancalagon]

not to mention SaaS stocks are down making the cost of borrowing against their stock more expensive

[skeeter2020]

Bingo - the combination of rising interest rates and tanking SaaS valuations has left a lot of these companies - specifically PE funded with mountains of debt - in a very weak position. Funny enough I think small SaaS companies are in a good position, both ownership & their potential use of AI, while larger SaaS companies, are in a lot of trouble. Why rent SaaS when you can build applications with AI? but then, who's going to maintain them?

[trgn]

but none of this applies to elastic. it's cash flow positive, and has such a cash hoard it's doing stock buybacks.

[Ancalagon]

As far as I understand companies will take out loans against their own stocks in good times as they expect their stocks to generally go up and to make more money than the payments on the interest of those loans. If their stocks go down they need to make up the shortfall elsewhere. The loans are generally used to keep business operations running smoothly irrespective of actual business cashflow (for example some businesses make most of their profits at certain times of the year). I'm not saying this for sure applies to Elastic but I believe its a pretty common pattern across major businesses.

[dev_daftly]

Tech companies use RSUs to game the accounting system and then have to do stock buybacks to keep the outstanding shares in line.

[kev009]

They carry $575m in debt, which is around 80-100 devs a year if they are paying something like 4.5% on it, ignoring tax write-offs on either case as well as equity comp. There is some calculus to all that, carrying some debt, doing buybacks, whatever other strategies to manage perceptions sure.

[confidantlake]

Nah they are just following the herd. When everyone was hiring they hired, when everyone was firing they fired. Go along to get along.