SYDNEY, 28 JANUARY 2009 - The world's technology and communications companies have cut another swathe through their workforces with Texas Instruments, Philips and US telco Sprint Nextel confirming yesterday they will retrench more than 17,000 workers.
The redundancies follow the 20,000 lay-offs that companies including Microsoft, Intel and Ericsson enacted last week as the global financial crisis sent sales of computing, communications and home electronics products and services into a tailspin.
Sprint Nextel unveiled one of the deepest cuts yet when it announced it would retrench 8000 workers - about 14 per cent of its workforce - as it attempted to reduce its costs by $US1.2 billion (S$1.8 billion) a year.
The company also suspended pay rises and contributions to employee retirement plans as it battled weakening demand and grappled with an exodus of customers to rival mobile carriers.
Royal Philips Electronics added to the woe when it said it would cut 6000 jobs following its first quarterly loss in six years.
The company, which pulled out of the Australian television market in late 2008, will lay off about 5 per cent of its workforce, with areas of the business that are most exposed to the automobile and mobile phone markets taking the biggest hits.
A spokeswoman for Philips Australia said that the restructure of its consumer business last year meant the subsidiary did not expect to be hit by the current round of international job cuts.
Amsterdam-based Philips also wrote down its stakes in LCD screen maker LG Display and chip maker NXP as it reported a EUR1.47 billion ($2.9 billion) fourth-quarter net loss, down from a profit of EUR1.4 billion a year ago. Sales slumped 8.9 per cent to EUR7.6 billion.
"Our fourth-quarter results confirm the expectation that we expressed in early December that the short-term economic outlook is worsening and that 2009 is likely to be a very challenging year," the company said in a statement.
Reflecting the deepening troubles of the semiconductor industry, Texas Instruments yesterday said it would shed 3400 workers - about 12 per cent of its workforce - by the end of September.
The cuts were announced as TI reported a plunge in fourth-quarter earnings from $US756 million to $US107 million and a drop in revenue from $US3.56 billion to $US2.49 billion.
"It is a broad economic slowdown in which consumer consumption has dramatically weakened and likely will weaken further," TI vice-president Ron Slaymaker said. "We are planning for a weaker economic environment that could be around for a while."
TI, along with AMD and Intel, is one of a growing number of chip makers to announce lay-offs following an abrupt slowdown in information technology sales that started in September last year. (MIS Australia)
