OpenText Layoffs – Inside the Quiet Unraveling of a Canadian Tech Giant

Watching a business shrink in slow motion has a subtly depressing quality. For the better part of two years, OpenText, the Waterloo-based software company that used to feel like the reliable older sibling of Canadian tech, has been paving the way for whatever comes next. About 880 people participated in the most recent round, which took place in March. Four percent of the labor force. A figure big enough to completely transform entire teams in a single night, but small enough for a press release to absorb without any effort.

After leaving, one employee posted on social media that it took eight minutes. In the time it takes to reheat coffee, seventeen years of labor on a single product came to an end. Many people have remembered that particular detail. It spread through Reddit and LinkedIn threads where former coworkers exchanged severance figures, compared notes, and raised the question that now looms over every layoff cycle: was this really about strategy, or was it just the simplest line item to cut?

These things always read the same way in the official explanation. A spokesperson discussed long-term growth, strategic priorities, and treating impacted employees with dignity. Well-intentioned but a little hollow, it’s the business equivalent of a sympathy card. But there’s a more distinct picture behind the words. OpenText is currently in its second year of a three-year “business optimization plan” that started in 2024 when the company laid off 1,200 employees under former CEO Mark Barrenechea. In May 2025, 1,600 more went in the same week that Barrenechea informed employees that adopting AI was a “number-one priority and baseline expectation.” Then, in August, he was removed. He did not stay, but the phrase did.

The fact that the cuts have affected particular teams rather than dispersing equally is startling. One longtime employee told BetaKit that all of the support engineers for a certain product were fired in one go. Sometimes managers didn’t find out who was leaving until after the fact. It’s the kind of reorganization that appears neat on a slide show but appears disorganized in a cubicle.

The stock of OpenText presents its own narrative. Investors may not be fully convinced that the optimization plan is optimizing the right things, as evidenced by the roughly one-third decline in shares on the Toronto Stock Exchange this year, which is a steeper decline than the tech sector as a whole. The company has been using the proceeds from the sale of what it refers to as “non-core assets,” such as its Vertica and eDOCS businesses, to pay off debt. It makes sense. Additionally, the company seems to be in a race to reinvent itself before someone else does it for them.

On April 20, former IBM Americas president Ayman Antoun assumes the role of CEO. He takes over a company that has undergone three rounds of layoffs in less than two years, has a thinner workforce, a bruised stock, and is in the middle of a pivot. The question that no one at OpenText seems willing to publicly address is whether he can stabilize the situation or if more cuts are on the horizon. Employees alternate between cautious optimism and outright fear on internal forums. According to a recent post, the business was “ripping ahead” in terms of new clients. Another said they couldn’t afford to be laid off at this time because they were expecting a baby in a few months.

It’s difficult to ignore the fact that, despite having different logos, this same narrative is being told throughout the Canadian tech industry. Leaner operations, AI, efficiency—all the well-known terms. On the ground, what they describe is frequently just people leaving with boxes.