Artificial intelligence company Cognition, which just last month acquired rival startup Windsurf, has already laid off 30 new employees and is offering stock buyouts to about 200 more IT workers, or a six-day workweek.
Artificial intelligence company Cognition, which just last month acquired rival startup Windsurf, has already laid off 30 new employees and is offering stock buyouts to about 200 more IT workers, or a six-day workweek.
Previously, OpenAI and Google, which planned to buy the company for $2.4 billion, claimed to acquire Windsurf. However, these deals fell through and the startup was absorbed by Cognition. As TechCrunch notes, it now becomes clear that it was not interested in the employees, but in the intellectual Windsurf.
When signing the deal, Cognition said that 100% of Windsurf employees would receive financial compensation, and emphasized that the company was excited to bring Windsurf’s «world-class experts» to develop top-notch coding tools.
According to an internal email, new Cognition employees have been given until August 10 to decide whether they want to accept a buyout offer worth nine months of their salary. Those who want to stay will reportedly be required to work six days a week in the office and 80 hours a week.
«People have been asking about our culture and recent employee communications. Cognition has a culture of extreme productivity, and we openly talk about this during hiring so there are no surprises later. We regularly work in the office on weekends and do some of our best work late at night. Many of us literally live where we work», — wrote Cognition CEO Scott Wu.
According to him, the company understands that some professionals who joined Windsurf did not expect to work at Cognition, and realizes that such working conditions are not suitable for everyone.
«We know that we will lose some talented employees this way, but we truly believe that the level of intensity that this moment requires of us is unprecedented. While not everyone is looking for a culture like ours, everyone deserves respect and appreciation for their work», — Wu noted.
