LinkedIn is shutting down its Israeli research and development operation and laying off nearly its entire local workforce, abruptly ending a Tel Aviv expansion that began with the company’s first Israeli acquisition.

The center currently employs about 50 people, according to Calcalist. Nearly all are expected to be laid off, while a small number may remain temporarily to handle ongoing business operations. LinkedIn described the move as part of proposed organizational changes intended to concentrate resources on its highest-impact priorities.

The closure is particularly striking because LinkedIn entered Israel through an acquisition designed not merely to buy technology, but to establish a permanent development presence.

In 2022, the Microsoft-owned professional networking giant acquired Israeli marketing analytics startup Oribi, founded by entrepreneur Iris Shoor. LinkedIn never publicly disclosed the purchase price, although reports placed it at approximately $80 million to $90 million. At the time, LinkedIn explicitly said the transaction would establish a new Tel Aviv office and expand the company’s international footprint.

Oribi specialized in making sophisticated website and marketing analytics accessible without requiring extensive coding. Its technology was subsequently integrated into LinkedIn Marketing Solutions, while the Israeli team worked on measurement, attribution and analytics products designed to help advertisers determine whether their campaigns were actually generating results.

The Israeli center operated separately from Microsoft’s much larger R&D presence in the country, despite Microsoft owning LinkedIn. Its roughly four-year run now appears to be coming to an end.

The decision also comes during a much broader shake-up across Israeli high-tech. Recent months have brought major workforce reductions at companies including Monday.com, Moovit, Wix, WSC Sports and ServiceNow, while ZoomInfo announced plans to close its Israeli development center and eliminate roughly 300 positions. Some companies have explicitly tied their reorganizations to the rapid adoption of AI and efforts to build leaner operations.

For LinkedIn, however, the symbolism is difficult to miss: an acquisition that once marked the company’s entry into Israel and the launch of a new R&D foothold is ending just four years later, with most of the team that built that operation now set to leave.