Cost Cutting Continues At IT Vendors

EMC will cut some 7 percent of its workers. The estimated 2,400 employees affected by the decision are part of a restructuring that the storage vendor said would "rebalance investments toward higher-growth products and markets." The layoffs come on the heels of EMC disclosing it expected moderate sales growth for its just-completed fourth quarter. The moves are anticipated to slash annual expenses by approximately $350 million this year and $500 million in 2010, according to the company.

Lenovo will reduce its workforce by roughly 11 percent, doling out pink slips to 2,500 employees worldwide. The computer maker has also said it will be reducing executive compensation and restructuring. Those layoff numbers include approximately 200 people in Toronto, Ontario, where Lenovo will close a customer call center, as well as 250 people in the Raleigh, N.C., area, in the company's sales, marketing, support, services, engineering and design operations. Lenovo will, however, hire 100 people in the Raleigh area to staff a new customer call center being built there.

Dell has announced cutbacks at its manufacturing plant in Limerick, Ireland. Nearly 2,000 workers will lose their jobs as production is transferred to an existing facility in Poland and to third-party OEM partners. The layoffs are part of a $3 billion cost reduction plan the computer manufacturer made public last year. Dell has had operations in Ireland for 18 years.

Motorola will slash its co-CEOs' salaries and freeze its U.S. pension plans. Beginning on Jan. 1, the company also is temporarily suspending all company matching contributions to employees' 401(k) plans. A salary freeze affecting many employees will also take effect. In addition, Motorola co-CEOs Greg Brown and Sanjay Jha will see a 25 percent compensation decrease in their base salaries; Brown will also forgo any 2008 cash bonuses. In addition, although Jha's contract guarantees a cash bonus for 2008, his bonus will be voluntarily reduced.

Despite just last month celebrating the manufacture of its one billionth mouse, Logitech plans to cut roughly 5 percent of its global workforce. The company has also abandoned its fiscal 2009 targets, citing a disappointing holiday shopping season. The cuts, which amount to 500 jobs, or 15 percent of the company's salaried workforce, were across the board -- but would not include workers involved in manufacturing.

Nonprofit organizations in the IT world aren't immune from the slumping economy. One Laptop Per Child, which provides inexpensive laptop computers for children in developing countries, cut its staff by 50 percent with the remaining 32 workers receiving reduced salaries. Despite the cuts, founder Nicholas Negroponte vowed to forge ahead with efforts to develop a sub-$100 laptop. OLPC is widely credited for breaking open the growing netbook market and has delivered laptops to 500,000 children around the world.

Borland, which has survived many economic ups and downs since its 1983 founding, laid off 130 employees, or 15 percent of its workforce, in a bid to cut annual expenses by $12 million to $14 million. The company, a developer of application life cycle management software, also announced that CEO Tod Nielsen resigned to become chief operating officer at VMware. The company described the structuring as part of its "plan to recalibrate its go-to-market" strategy.

Tablet computer maker Motion Computing laid off about 30 employees, or approximately 25 percent of its workforce. The company also said that CEO Scott Eckert had departed the company and was replaced by company co-founder David Altounian. The cutbacks came despite Motion Computing's ability to raise $6 million in venture capital funding just two weeks earlier.

Seagate will reduce jobs by approximately 10 percent in the United States, which is roughly 2 percent of the vendor's global headcount. Seagate said that the restructuring will impact a broad range of departments, including R&D, and comes in response to the current economic environment. Also on Monday, the disk-drive maker ousted Bill Watkins as president and CEO, and replaced him with Stephen Luczo, the company's chairman.