A Christmas classic: Cloudera founder asks staff to stay another day

Cloudera founder Mike Olson has asked staffers to turn down recruiters' advances ahead of the firm's merger with Hortonworks – despite acknowledging there could be layoffs.

The former competitors in the Hadoop market are gearing up for a shareholder vote on the deal at the end of the month, and Cloudera is aiming to smooth over any potential concerns within its ranks.

"The merger, of course, creates additional stress on the company. Many of you are naturally curious and concerned about your own jobs," Olson said in a communication to employees this week.

"We're actively looking at ways to preserve jobs where it makes business sense to do so," he said in the memo, which was published with the SEC.

"In cases where we must terminate positions, we will put reasonable plans, including severance packages, in place to ease the transition for those affected."

Olson said senior staff were working on an organisation chart and staffing plans for the combined company – which will also be called Cloudera – but that much of the work won't be done until the deal has closed.

However, despite admitting that layoffs were possible, he urged staff to reject advances from head hunters.

"Most of you are no doubt targeted by recruiters regularly. I hope that you'll turn down those," he said.

"While we work through this period, I would like each of you give us the time we require to do a thorough job. We hired you because we need you – the work you do matters to Cloudera today."

Chatter on anonymous messaging board The Layoff suggests Cloudera may have made some redundancies during summer, but the firm will be keen to handle any further departures on its own terms; a spate of people leaving of their own accord could rock the boat with shareholders or Wall Street and distract from handling the merger.

The vote on the deal is set for 28 December, with the two companies holding separate meetings, both of which require an affirmative vote from the majority of shareholders to go ahead with the merger.

If approved, Cloudera stockholders will own 60 per cent of the fully diluted shares of the final company, and Hortonworks shareholders the remaining 40 per cent.

Hortonworks, meanwhile, is facing lawsuits from shareholders, who claim the firm has misrepresented and omitted information from documents that call on investors to approve the deal.

Cloudera did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether there had been redundancies made over the summer or the possibility of further layoffs. ®