Intel to Lay Off Thousands

symbolset writes to say that "Intel is expecting to lay off 10% of their workforce in a move to become more competitive against rival AMD. From the article: 'The Santa Clara, Calif.-based chipmaker, having suffered several financially disappointing quarters, launched an internal analysis in April to find ways to increase its efficiency. [CEO Paul] Otellini is scheduled to announce the results of the analysis, including the layoff, on Tuesday after the stock market closes, sources familiar with the plans said. Intel has about 100,000 employees worldwide, so the cut could be as high as 10 percent of the company's staff.' Coverage also at The Register, internetnews.com, and more as it develops at Google News. Reuters has the number at up to 16,000."

Comments

Hopefully not by email

[mgblst]

I think Intel has more class than some other companies.

But this is still a huge number of people to get rid off. Don't they do these sort of checks all the time, on a department basis. This sound more like a simple reaction to we can't do anything better, so we will fire people. A bad solution to a problem if you ask me.

Re:Hopefully not by email

[sjwaste]

A bad solution to a problem if you ask me.

Close, but not quite. When they had less competition, they probably just threw people at problems their current staff couldn't solve. Now that there's competition, they have to cut back. The simple reaction you talk about was probably needlessly throwing people at problems in the past.

Re:Hopefully not by email

[hiroller]

It seems like a knee-jerk reaction to me. They're losing money and they don't want to scare off the investors. Easiest way to do that is to reduce the money flowing out of the company which usually means layoffs. Less salaries gives the appearance of more profit margins

Everytime, I hear of layoffs though I always think of Office Space

Peter Gibbons: You're gonna lay off Samir and Michael?
Bob Slydell: Oh yeah, we're bring in some entry-level graduates, farm some work out to Singapore, that's the usual deal.
Bob Porter: Standard operating procedure.
Peter Gibbons: Do they know this yet?
Bob Slydell: No. No, of course not. We find it's always better to fire people on a Friday. Studies have statistically shown that there's less chance of an incident if you do it at the end of the week.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0151804/quotes

Re:Hopefully not by email

[RetlawST]

I've never been a fan of mass layoffs, but we don't know how long this has been in the making. Hopefully Intel has audited well and doesn't end up severing it's own foot in order to escape from the trap. I feel bad for the employees, but layoffs are going to happen at a large company when things start going south. Hopefully Intel is classy and gives them enough time to find new jobs/promise to rehire if things get better.

Don't start with the little guys.

[Anonymous Coward]

Middle management is a great waste of skin. Plus they often take a fairly large salary while not generating revenue or a product.

Not knee jerk

[cryfreedomlove]

This probably is not the simplistic knee jerk reaction that you describe. I'm sure that any of us could identify a lot of redundancy or simple non-performance in any organization of 100,000 people. If you were running an organization with redundancy and dead wood and you were faced with competition from AMD then what would you do?

Re:More competitive?

[jank1887]

10,000 employees, estimate $100,000 per year total expenses per employee = 1 Billion dollars per year saved. If you can minimize the negative impact of that cut on your budget (i.e., drop money sucking programs, keep production/sales at a status quo, etc.) then you have increased your yearly net profit. Profit = competition resource. More competition resources at your disosal = more competitive.

If needed and done right, it's the way capitalism is supposed to work. If it's just a wall-street ploy and actually hurts other areas of their bottom line, well, poo on them.