Publicly Announced Layoffs for March 1999

Publicly Announced Layoffs for March 1999
March 8, 1999
Advanced Micro Sees Big Loss, To Cut 300 Jobs
SUNNYVALE, Calif. - Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (NYSE:AMD - news), a maker of microprocessors and other chips, said Monday it now expected a ``significant loss'' in its first quarter because of manufacturing problems earlier in the quarter with its core K6 family of chips.
The company also said it would cut 300 jobs over the next two quarters, which will result in a charge against earnings in the first quarter, ending March 28, and in the next quarter.
The job cuts, which represent about 2.2 percent of AMD's total workforce of 13,800, are the first job cuts at AMD in about three years, a spokesman said. More details on the charges will be given when AMD reports first quarter earnings after the market closes on April 6, AMD said.
The job cuts are part of an overall restructuring to focus on areas where AMD can lead and grow profitably, said AMD spokesman Scott Allen.
``Some projects and product areas are going to be curtailed or eliminated, but we are not prepared to talk about that yet,'' Allen said.
Mar. 9, 1999
Fluor To Cut 5,000 Jobs In Reorganization
IRVINE, Calif. - Worldwide engineering and construction giant Fluor Corp. said Tuesday it planned to reorganize its operations, cutting 5,000 jobs and taking a charge against earnings, in an effort to boost its profits.
The company, which has about 61,000 employees, said its goal was to boost return on operating assets to 13 percent from current levels of 9 percent and to achieve sustainable revenue growth of 10 percent annually within five years.
``We are implementing actions intended to deal with both deteriorating business environments in our two principal business segments and strategically position the company for profitability,'' Chief Executive Philip Carroll said.
Under the plan Fluor Corp. will be organized into four business groups, Fluor Daniel, its engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) business, A.T. Massey Coal Co, Fluor Global Services and Shared Services, an in-house administrative service organization.
Fluor Daniel will close 15 offices and cut a total of 5,000 jobs resulting in a second-quarter charge of $130 million and annual cost-savings of $160 million. The company said its new strategy of a more focused business coupled with increasingly challenging business conditions will reduce projections for new EPC awards for the year to about $6 billion but will have a nominal impact on 1999 operating profits.
Mar. 12, 1999
Ingram Micro to Cut 1,400 Jobs
Distributor also will fall short of earnings forecasts for current quarter but vows to meet rivals head-on.
Citing slow demand abroad and intense price wars domestically, Ingram Micro Inc., the country's largest computer distributor, said Thursday it will slash 1,400 jobs to lower its costs.
The company's decision to eliminate 10% of its work force comes at a time when investors are concerned that demand for personal computers has dropped off and emerging markets have weakened.
Santa Ana-based Ingram said 500 of the job cuts will occur in the U.S., including about 100 employees in the company's Fremont, Calif., consolidation plant, which will be closed.
The company also said its earnings this quarter will fall far short of analysts' expectations, even as revenue grows about 30% to nearly $6.7 billion, illustrating how price competition has cut into its profit.
Ingram had tried to stay somewhat above the fray of a price war that has plagued the computer distribution industry. But in a conference call with analysts Thursday, the company said it will join the fight.
March 15, 1999
Boeing Co. to cut 6,700 more jobs than projected
SEATTLE - Boeing Co. said Monday it will cut 6,700 more jobs than expected due to reduced overtime and other manufacturing efficiencies in its commercial airplane division.
The additional cuts mean that total job reductions by the end of the year will be at the high end of a range of 28,000 to 38,000 that the company announced earlier, Boeing said.
"They began to make a turn in the fourth quarter last year and have continued to make improvements in production,'' Boeing spokesman Peter Conte said. "As you get better, and more efficient, you need less people to do the job.''
While there will be layoffs, about half of the job cuts will come through attrition, he said.
March 19, 1999
First Union cuts 5,850 jobs in restructuring
CHARLOTTE, N.C. - First Union, the nation's sixth biggest banking company, is cutting about 5,850 jobs, or 7 percent of its work force, in a restructuring.
The job cuts announced today come in the wake of First Union's $16.1 billion merger last year with Philadelphia-based CoreStates Financial Corp.
The banking company said last month it was considering cutting as many as 7,150 jobs. Its combined work force stands at about 79,000.
Layoff notices were delivered to employees in late February and early March, spokeswoman Mary Eshet said. She didn't know how many of the affected workers were former CoreStates employees.
March 24, 1999
America Online To Cut Up To 1,000 Jobs
DULLES, Va. - America Online Inc., the world's largest Internet service provider, plans to cut its workforce by up to eight percent following the $10 billion acquisition of Netscape Communications Corp., the company said Wednesday.
In a widely anticipated move applauded on Wall Street, Dulles, Va.-based America Online will pare 700 to 1,000 jobs from its 12,000-person workforce, including 350-500 jobs at Netscape, which it acquired last week.
``They were in a hiring spree in the last nine months or so,'' Friedman Billings Ramsey analyst Ulric Weil said. ``They are tightening up, and using the opportunity of the Netscape integration to tighten up the whole ship.''
America Online, which expects to post an unspecified charge to cover costs of the job cuts, said it created four product groups to manage its core online business. The groups will focus on its AOL and CompuServe online services; independent Internet products; Netscape corporate software; and international operations.
Mar. 29, 1999
Wells Fargo to Cut Up to 4,600 Jobs
SAN FRANCISCO-Wells Fargo & Co. could reduce its staff by as much as 4,600 people, or 5% of its 92,000 full-time workers, as the seventh-largest U.S. bank eliminates "redundant" jobs. . The severance-related costs could total $280 million, said spokesman Larry Haeg. The costs would be covered in the $375-million charge Wells took in the fourth quarter for personnel-related expenses following the takeover of Wells by Norwest Corp. in November, Haeg said. The merged company took the venerable Wells Fargo name and moved its headquarters to San Francisco.
However, Wells said the layoffs could be much less severe. "We don't think we'll even come close to losing" 5% of the bank's staff, Haeg said. Wells expects "natural turnover" and expansion prospects to keep the job loss down, Haeg said. So far, about 700 positions have been eliminated.
Mar. 30, 1999
CHS To Slash 600 Jobs After Poor 4Q Showing
CHS will cut 600 jobs -- about 10 percent of its work force -- and consolidate its global operations from 10 to six locations following poor fourth quarter results.
It is also considering the closure of 25 to 30 redundant warehouses. The plan, designed to reduce capital expenditure in 1999 by $15 million, may include closing any operation with low profit generation within six months.
The distributor anticipates cutting operating expenses by $40 million and said the cuts are effective immediately. CHS posted results that were lower than feared in an earnings warning last month.
Mar. 31, 1999
American Home Products to Cut 3,000 Jobs
Drug-making giant American Home Products Corp. said it. will eliminate nearly 3,000 jobs worldwide, or about 6% of its work force, in a move to boost sagging profit and sales. The brunt of the cuts will be felt at Wyeth-Ayerst International, the company's pharmaceutical division that makes the popular estrogen pill Premarin, The unit is based in St. Davids, Pa., and has two research facilities in New Jersey. The company has been plagued with thousands of lawsuits over its recalled diet drugs, Pondimin, half of the popular fen-phen combination, and Redux, as well as its birth control device Norplant. An AHP spokesman said the lawsuits had nothing to do with the layoffs. About 1,000 people at its research and production facilities in New Jersey will lose their jobs this year and another 1,000 will be discharged over the next four years. Some 500 vacancies within the unit will not be filled. Other cuts will be made at American Cyanamid, the agricultural products division based in Parsippany, N.J. Shares of AHP rose 6 cents to close at $65.81 on the New York Stock Exchange. The cuts were announced after the close of trading.

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