Shares for software giant Atlassian slump, wiping billions from company in minutes

Shares in one of Australia’s most successful companies have plummeted overnight, with software giant Atlassian losing billions in minutes.

Shares in one of Australia’s most high-profile companies have plummeted overnight, with billions wiped off the company’s valuation in a matter of minutes.

Atlassian shares, which are listed on the US Nasdaq, dropped by more than 20 per cent after the market closed on Friday morning, wiping more than $US10bn ($A16bn) from its valuation and hitting the net worth of joint chief executives and Australian rich listers Scott Farquhar and Mike Cannon-Brookes.

Shares in Australian software giant Atlassian have plummeted. Picture: Nasdaq

In a letter to shareholders Atlassian, which provides team collaboration and productivity software and last month announced an intention to hire 1000 new research and development staff, said companies across every industry were battling challenging economic conditions.

It noted two trends: the reduction in the rate of free users converting to paid plans, which began in the last quarter, had become “more pronounced”, and the rate of paid user growth from existing customers had slowed.

Atlassian chief executive Mike Cannon-Brookes has seen better days. Picture: Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images/AFP

“Companies in nearly every industry are facing economic headwinds, and we’re beginning to see the impacts on our business,” the letter to shareholders said.

But Atlassian said it had not witnessed any overall changes to their competitiveness or the demand for the company’s products.

“Looking across our customer base of 249,000, there has been no overall decrease in usage or change in churn,” it said.

“The above two trends are the result of companies tightening their belts and slowing their pace of hiring.

“In other words, Atlassian is not immune to broader macro impacts.”

The company lost billions in minutes. Picture: Dhiraj Singh/Bloomberg via Getty Images

It said the current climate afforded new opportunities for the company to flourish.

“Turbulent markets provide an opportunity to shake up the leaderboards, and we are poised to play offence in this environment,” Atlassian said.

As of Friday morning, Atlassian’s shares had dropped 22 per cent to $US136, while in the year to date shares in the company are already down by more than 50 per cent.

Mr Farquhar and Mr Cannon-Brookes reportedly held 43 per cent of the company’s shares in August however planned to sell a percentage of them.

Atlassian, which is based in Sydney, is responsible for the creation of software tools such as Jira, Confluence and HipChat.