Thread regarding F5 Networks Inc. layoffs

@kqb are the layoffs centered in the US or India?

@kmb No sources like the news articles there were about the 2023 RIF, but if you search "HackerOne" on LinkedIn, filter by "Posts", and sift through the people posting about bounties, you'll see several posts from last week by people getting laid off from H1. I just had a front-row seat to the LinkedIn posts without searching for them since I used to work at H1 a few years ago, so they showed up organically in my feed.

@kmb you can search on linkedin and see people saying they were laid off.

@kgq are their public sources on this layoff?

Has Anyone Really Been Far Even as Decided to Use Even Go Want to do Look More Like?

@kgq to be clear, the layoffs have been ongoing since summer 2025. this just may have been the biggest set.

@kh2 Same tired lingo, same recycled bullsh-t. Zero strategy, zero vision. It’s the same McKinsey-era playbook from the ’90s: open an office in India, talk up “enterprise focus,” and parade some cherry-picked stat about enterprise percentage going up.

No sh-t the percentage is rising — the overall pie is shrinking. And the slice she chose? That’s shrinking too. This isn’t leadership; it’s accounting gymnastics dressed up as strategy.

Honestly, I wish I’d seen this post earlier. It would’ve saved a lot of time wondering what, exactly, she was supposed to bring to HackerOne.
I wish I found out about this post earlier, so I can know what she would brought to hackerone

@kgq “ company continued to hire new employees and invested in new products to expand its platform capabilities, but the products did not meet expectations and caused cost burdens, the executive noted.”

https://techcrunch.com/2023/08/02/hackerone-layoffs/

This sounds rather familiar. The same “strategy”. The same results. It adds to her “leadership” achievements.

Somebody needs to report Sprague to The Hague for war crimes

HackerOne had a layoff on Jan 15.

In hindsight, it wasn’t that surprising. Q4 metrics were rough, and leadership instability was already visible. The company is now on its third CFO — the original left in Q3, and the replacement arrived in December and was gone within a week.

Hard situation overall, especially for the people impacted.

@jkj https://www.theregister.com/2026/01/07/hackerone_ghosted_researcher/ ?

@jkj Something's cooking?

Y’all come back to this thread in 1 week when you hear the news about hacker one

@OP This tea is so good.

Hackerone now has:
no CFO
no CRO
no CMO
a co-founder on leave
trickling layoffs
2 mckinsey consultants in charge

@371 my count is 1400

@3w2

So has her chaos, layoffs, churn, and inept vision followed her? at least one McKinsey bestie did. headcount seems to be dropping. strange things afoot at the circle h, for sure.

@2vf. Interesting it was all about her. I counted 35 times she used the word "I". She is very selfish. She also said her tour at f5 was 7 years. So she was on a vacation then when she was here? She did so much damage along with her pal FLD

@a2 So, she appears to be a desire-driven maniac without any experience of developing and making any product successful. Yet, she becomes a CEO. What a load!

Consultancies she worked for don't make technical products. They specialise in catching cash cows and milking them as much as possible, giving advice they don't take responsibility for.

Talking at every meeting about "ridiculously easy" products and complaining about "churn" is all that she did at F5.

Her major success? Laying off 600+ people. Six hundred engineering souls paid for megalomaniac Directors and VPs, their incompetence and ignorance.

@ry f5 did a good job in keeping the scandal quiet. While they were getting married 620 employees were getting RIFd

@2vf has it been removed?

Kara's PR crisis manager published a blog on LinkedIn, in response to this thread. It's called "A goal is not a script. It's a compass".

@1f9 at the same time, the law can be easily circumvented...... F5 choses to do what is in it's best interest....

That's what the corporate world looks like. BS about "we are family", or worse, "we build TOGETHER" is the narrative for the blind workforce.

A goal is not a script. It's a compass.

@1cz if memory serves me no new products and some existing ones were cancelled

@ek bigip next was effectively canceled at the April 2023 RIF

@ac To be protected by law, she took FMLA prior the RIF announcement. Otherwise her job would have been eliminated. Her wife knew about it, HR knew about RIF was coming for months, signed off on her leave to protect her RSUs, job, title, pay and benefits anyway. You and I who did not sleep with the power to be, no pillow talk with a C level would have lost everything but a severance package

@xc can only why other women on FMLA when they returned were RIFd.

@1f1 she and Kara also wedded first week in April 2023. Something isn't adding up as to why she took FMLA

@15m she went on FMLA(knowing) when HR prepared for the April layoff

Which brand new product did F5 deliver under Kara?
#nothing #onlyAcquisition

@xe the timeline of significant dates isn't adding up as the RIF was mid April, 2023 - not March among other events.

I guess it doesn't matter anyway - she is gone.

@xc confused as to the point of your post.....

Kara's GF/Fiancé/Wife was a Business Analysis in IT who risen to VP of Talents and Acquisitions at F5 speed (less than 2 years), was featured on cover page of an IT magazine as Woman In Tech who broke through brick walls! Prior to the 9% workforce RIFed in March, she went on an FMLA leave citing mental health due to stress at work, Her direct MGR Anna signed off on it. She was protected by laws, returned to the same job 3 months later when F5 was not hiring nor buying.

@ry she and another exec got wedded that month....

@my her affairs at work and breaching company policies

What was the real reason she left related to?

Join McKinsey, find a company with 1 billion plus revenue and work on projects there, convince the CEO to hire you, do nothing productive and talk like a management consultant drone until your shares are vested and resign. It was a great plan. She's clearly a genius at growing her net worth, there's no shame in that.

Next was discontinued in Aug 2025 - at least a year after Kara's departure - but she must have known it was a doomed dumpster fire which is why she bailed for promotion to CEO at HackerOne.