Atlassian revenue surges as losses shrink; president Anu Bharadwaj quits
Mike Cannon-Brookes has given an upbeat outlook for Atlassian, expecting ‘significant tailwinds’ from AI after the company upped its full-year revenue by almost $US1bn.
Atlassian has grown annual revenue by almost $US1bn ($1.53bn) while slashing its net loss, as co-founder and chief executive Mike Cannon-Brookes said artificial intelligence is “fundamentally changing the way we work” and will be the source of Atlassian’s most dynamic era.
Mr Cannon-Brookes also announced that Atlassian president Anu Bharadwaj would step down after 12 years. Mr Cannon-Brookes is not going anywhere, he promised, declaring it was “the most exciting time to be at Atlassian”.
Wall Street analyst Keith Weiss from Morgan Stanley questioned Mr Cannon-Brookes’s upbeat assessment, saying “it’s a little bit at odds with what we hear in the marketplace”.
“Frankly, there’s a lot of concern around code generation tools and the changing role of a developer, which you seem to see as a positive versus the market seeing it as more of a negative,” Mr Weiss said.
“What do you think is going to transpire on a go forward basis in terms of how these innovations are going to affect that core business from Atlassian going forward?”
Atlassian sacked 150 workers last week ahead of co-founder Scott Farquhar – who stepped down as co-chief executive last year and is now chair of the Tech Council of Australia – delivering his first speech at the National Press Club. Mr Farquhar aimed to spur enthusiasm towards AI as a source of productivity gains.
Mr Cannon-Brookes predicted AI’s arrival would create more jobs overall, but those jobs would change.
“Do I think there will be far less developers in the world five years from now? Nope, I don’t think so. I think there’ll be far more and far more people creating software in other functions, right? Whether they’re in finance or HR marketing, there’s going to be a lot more people creating software,” the Atlassian boss said.
“Do I think developers’ roles will change? Yes. This is a big change. It’s super productive. We see that internally, but there’s still a lot of, awful lot of work to do.”
The billionaire was dedicated to his job, he reminded the assembled analysts.
“While we’re very saddened to see [Ms Bharadwaj] leave, we’re incredibly grateful for all of her impact. Like everything we do, we’re long term in our thinking and thoughtful always in our plans. Anu’s greatest legacy is the talented team of leaders that she has built and developed. And we’ll have more updates on leadership transitions soon,” Mr Cannon-Brookes said.
“And before anyone on the call asks, I’m not going anywhere. So you can have to put up with me for many more years. I love my job, and this is the most exciting time to be at Atlassian. We’re creating amazing products and capabilities which are delighting our customers like never before.
“We have a fantastic tailwind from new AI technologies, and it’s incredible to see our vision, our vision, resonating.”
The Australian revealed Mr Cannon-Brookes and Mr Farquhar fell out over conflicting opinions on Atlassian’s culture, neighbouring luxury properties and a tense dynamic between their respective spouses at the time. Mr Farquhar even proposed that Mr Cannon-Brookes step down with him as co-CEO, but the idea was dismissed by the executive committee.
Atlassian’s revenue for the fourth quarter surged 22 per cent to $US1.38bn, while it cut its net loss from $US196.9m to $US23.9m.
On a full year basis, its revenue jumped to $US5.2bn from $US4.4bn, while its loss fell from $US300.5m to $US256.7m.
“We are hitting our stride in executing against our three strategic priorities: enterprise, AI, and system of work,” Mr Cannon-Brookes said.
“Our three strategic priorities are becoming increasingly interconnected under our cloud platform, with its powerful AI functionality, seamless collaboration, and enterprise grade capabilities amplifying each other.”
During the year, Atlassian made its new artificial intelligence assistant free for customers.
Dubbed Rovo, the platform that allows companies to build their own AI-powered “agents”, was previously priced at $US20 per user a month and competes alongside Microsoft’s Copilot.
Big tech companies are now talking up how they can help businesses build AI agents, which are capable of performing a variety of tasks autonomously, in an effort to lift productivity. Microsoft has even created a virtual human for Germany’s Commerzbank, while Adobe has also integrated agents across its suite of products – such as Photoshop and Premiere Pro – saying it will make artists more creative by stripping out mundane tasks.
Mr Cannon-Brookes said the goal was to drive usage first and monetisation in the long-term.
On Friday, local time, Atlassian also announced a multi-year partnership with Google Cloud to accelerate cloud transformation and deliver advanced AI capabilities for customers.
Atlassian is expecting to generate revenue for the current quarter of $US1.395bn to $US1.403bn. Cloud revenue growth year-over-year is expected to be approximately 22.5 per cent.
For the 2026 financial year, revenue growth is expected to be 18 per cent, while operating margin will be minus 2.5 per cent.
“Our guidance approach for FY 26 is consistent with the approach we took in FY 25 which is we are taking what I believe to be a conservative and risk adjusted approach to account for macroeconomic uncertainty and potential business disruption from the evolution of our enterprise go to market sales motion, because we believe those risks are still very relevant to the current operating environment,” Atlassian chief financial officer Joe Binz said.
Atlassian shares closed 7.7 per cent lower to a 10-month low of $US171.00 in the US overnight.
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