SAP Labs lays off 300 staffers in India

SAP Labs, research and development business unit of German technology firm SAP, last week laid off around 300 executives across its India centres, people aware of the matter told ET.

The layoffs majorly impacted Bengaluru and Gurgaon offices, they said.

It was a result of shuttering of a global delivery centre that housed custom development roles to undertake SAP implementation projects, one of the sources said.


The affected employees, some of whom with 10-15 years of experience, have been provided severance packages of salaries equating the number of years they served at the company, among other benefits, the person said.

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In response to ET’s request for comment, SAP Labs declined to give out an India-specific break up on the layoff.

A company spokesperson said it is undergoing a strategic transformation started two years ago and that it has deepened its focus on delivering value to current and new customers in the cloud and on high-growth opportunities as part of an organisational re-prioritisation.

“This was a difficult decision and we are deeply aware of the personal impact of these changes,” the spokesperson said.

One of the sources cited above said some of the skills of the affected employees have turned old and that most of the customers are moving to cloud, needing new skills on the employees’ ends. “So, it’s a combination of multiple things,” he added.

SAP had late last month announced layoffs to focus on its “core business” globally, impacting around 3,000 roles. The layoffs were announced right after the firm reported a 30% revenue increase in its cloud business in the fourth quarter ended December 2022.

Early last year, SAP Labs had said it would double its India headcount by 2025 and open a new campus in Devanahalli, Bengaluru, with a capacity of 15,000 people. The company has acquired 41 acres in the area which is strategically placed close to its global clients in the city.

“The R&D workforce of India is the backbone of SAP. All of our innovation at scale comes from here. The doubling (of SAP Labs) workforce will be the major growth driver for SAP in the future,” Thomas Saueressig, SAP SE executive board member, had said in a statement in June last year.

The hiring, Saueressig had said, was not due to labour arbitrage or cost benefit purposes but reflective of huge growth seen in the cloud business.

Back then, SAP Labs said it had 14,000 employees in the country across its five locations in Bengaluru, Pune, Mumbai, Gurgaon and Hyderabad.

One of the sources mentioned above told ET that SAP Labs India headcount has gone up to 19,000 as of now. Some of the employees affected are hopeful of getting absorbed back into SAP via available roles.

“We have two months in terms of a notice period and have till then to find jobs,” one of the affected employees told ET.

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