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Job Cuts For Dell, Motorola, and Circuit City

Posted by Zonk on from the dire-straights dept.

maeveth writes "Talk about not a good time to be working in the tech sector. Layoffs all over the industry have been announced, in a variety of different areas. Last week Dell announced they were partnering with Wal-Mart; this week they are planning a ten-percent reduction in their global workforce. Motorola was already going to cut some 3500 jobs by the end of June; they're now adding another 4000 pink slips to that number (and hoping that next month's RAZR2 launch will boost profits). To top it all off Circuit City is acting in a decidedly schizophrenic manner. The are going to axe about 850 employees, on top of the 70 stores they closed last month ... while also planning to open 165 new stores."

2 of 195 comments (clear)

  1. Schizo closings/openings. by ushering05401 · · Score: 5, Informative

    The submission suggests the decision to open new stores while closing others is weird... but it is not.

    BGI (Borders, Waldenbooks, Brentanos, Paperchse) announced they would be closing/spinning off all international operations a day before they announced the opening of several new international stores. The intertia behind the construction, planning, hiring, etc was too great to halt. Additionally, the purchasing departments negotiate deals based on volume and there was *years* of planning/analysis/spending that affected the entire chain and would need to be revisited if the stores did not open as planned.

    The damage to the company would have been greatly compounded if the new stores had not opened.

    Finally, while closing locations is common practice for companies that are in difficult times, it is not unusual to continue expanding in markets that show more promise than the failing ones that were cut. Shoring up existing markets does less to placate edgy shareholders than showing aggressive pursuit of new opportunities.

    Regards.

  2. Re:This'd be a feature of printing money. by Vancorps · · Score: 3, Informative

    Except that the only reason inflation is down is because people aren't being paid more to purchase all the goods that have gone up in price. I'd call that bad times for a lot of people. Fortunately I'm still due my raise, woohoo for no inflation!