Memo: Cable and Wireless To Cut 65 Percent Of European Staff

The memo, sent Nov. 27 to C&W staff in Germany by Ottmar Schipper, vice president for Germany and Austria, states that the German operations 'will keep nearly 50 percent of the overall work force. This is much more than the European average of 35 percent.'

The move is the first indication of how the company's plan to turn around its troubled C&W Global unit will hit its operations in continental Europe.

The C&W Global unit had aims of becoming a global telecom carrier based around Internet-type data, but has swallowed 6 billion British pounds ($9.46 billion) in the deteriorating telecom market and is still consuming cash.

That's something Cable and Wireless can ill afford: The company reported a net loss of 4.54 billion British pounds ($7.16 billion) for the fiscal first half ended Sept. 30, compared with a loss of 567 million British pounds a year earlier.

Schipper's memo indicated that some operations will be sold rather than shut down.

Peter Eustace, a spokesman for Cable and Wireless in London, said the company hasn't finalized plans for job cuts in Europe.

'The consultation process is still going on,' he said.

The London-based company employs around 1,250 people in Europe outside the United Kingdom, Eustace said.

In November, Cable and Wireless Chief Executive Graham Wallace pledged to cut 3,500 jobs worldwide as part of a plan to get C&W Global generating cash by March 2004.

American depositary shares of parent company C&W traded at $2.21, up 9 cents, or 4.3 percent, in afternoon trading Thursday on the New York Stock Exchange.

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