Microsoft advised to lay off over 9,000 employees

New York (PTI): The world's top software firm Microsoft has been asked to cut its workforce by 10 per cent, or about 9,100 employees, to tell the market that profits are more important than revenue growth in difficult times.   Brokerage firm Oppenheimer & Co's analyst Brad Reback has said in a report on Microsoft that such layoff exercise "would be a healthy move for the company." The move would be well received by the market and would "signal that profitability is more important than revenue growth during this very difficult time," Reback added. Calling for a 10 per cent reduction on the company's payrolls, Reback said in his report for the institutional investors of Microsoft that this would result in an approximately 10 per cent gain in its earnings per share.   The software giant had close to 91,000 employees on its payrolls at the end of July-September quarter.   Earlier in October, Microsoft had put in place a hiring freeze on some of its divisions, such as entertainment and devices businesses that make products like X-Box and Zune. There have been some unconfirmed reports on blogs that the company would announce some major layoffs in the first month of 2009.   Microsoft is scheduled to release its second-quarter results for the fiscal year 2008-09 on January 22.   Battling the economic crisis, companies in their bid to save costs, have announced more than one lakh job cuts in the month of December alone in the US, while so far in 2008 there have been close to 20 lakh layoffs.

Yahoo India lays off 45 people; Viswanathan Krishnamurthi quits as CIO

BANGALORE: Yahoo! India on Wednesday laid off some 50 people, about 3% of its workforce, as part of a global downsizing move. This is the second round of layoffs in the company this year. Sources close to the company said that a part of the layoffs was based on performance, and the rest on job redundancies on account of consolidation. An employee told TOI that Yahoo!'s HotJobs division has almost wound up, with some employees being redeployed and others asked to go. The company is said to be making efforts to support impacted employees with severance packages and outbound placement services. A spokesperson of the company said the Indian operations was notified about the layoffs on Tuesday and the process was completed on Wednesday. Globally, Yahoo is laying off about 1,500 employees, about 10% of its workforce, according to a report by news agency Reuters. This follows the announcement in October that layoffs would occur by year's end, the agency said. Reuters said that the layoffs will hit hardest in the labour-intensive areas of human resources and finance. Yahoo!'s found the going tough against the likes of Google. In a move that is said to be unrelated to the layoffs, Yahoo! India's chief information officer Viswanathan Krishnamurthi has quit the company.

HSBC to cut 500 jobs, Credit Suisse to lay off 650

London Amid the ongoing economic crisis, the banking sector continues to be hit by mass layoffs with financial service major Credit Suisse and HSBC announcing additional 1,150 job cuts, a media report says.   According to the Financial Times, Credit Suisse will be trimming its workforce by 10 per cent leading to job loss for 650 employees, while HSBC said it was slashing 500 jobs. Credit Suisse has been impacted by the loan writedowns, which has led to two quarters of losses for Switzerland's second-largest bank this year, the report said. A majority of the jobs at Credit Suisse would be cut in the investment banking and the support functions segment.   The report quoted Credit Suisse as saying that it was reacting to market conditions and projected staffing levels required to meet client needs. The UK's largest bank, HSBC, said it was planning to reduce its UK workforce by more than five per cent at its headquarters in Canary Wharf and other locations, to reduce duplication of work, FT said.   HSBC, which employs about 8,000 people at its headquarters, said that it would shed 500 employees of its head office in areas including finance and legal services, the report added. However, the union has seen no business rationale for these job cuts and believes that HSBC is using the economic downturn an excuse to reduce employment. Earlier, HSBC said that it would cut 500 jobs in Asia as part of a shake-up of its global banking and markets division.   Besides, Citigroup had also announced it was shedding 52,000 staff worldwide, while Royal Bank of Scotland plans to cut about 3,000 jobs in its investment banking division.

Bridgestone may cut jobs at US plant

TOKYO - Japan's Bridgestone said yesterday it may stop producing tires for passenger cars and light trucks at a plant in the United States next year with the loss of up to 500 jobs. As a first step, the group said its U.S. subsidiary Bridgestone Firestone North American Tire would lay off at least 158 employees on December 21 at the plant in LaVergne, Tennessee.

Delta to cut capacity, may cut jobs

Delta Air Lines Inc. will trim its capacity by up to 8 percent in 2009 and suggested more jobs cuts are on the way, driven by the global economic slowdown and softening traffic. The Atlanta-based airline revealed the cuts in a memo to its 75,000 employees from Chief Executive Officer Richard Anderson and President Edward Bastian. The memo noted domestic capacity would shrink up to 10 percent while international capacity will fall by as much as 5 percent. The declines include the effect of capacity cuts made this year. Executives also said in the memo that Delta (NYSE: DAL) might soon cut more jobs, noting the airline is "analyzing the impact on staffing as it pertains to these capacity reductions and, as in the past, we will offer voluntary programs to adjust staffing needs." Delta in the spring identified about 700 managerial and administrative jobs for elimination and offered buyouts to non-pilot employees in an effort to trim 2,000 jobs, about 3 percent of its work force at the time. The same month that the company offered up the buyouts, it struck a deal to buy Eagan, Minn.-based Northwest Airlines Corp., a transaction that closed in late October. Delta executives said the company is realizing "significant benefits" from the deal despite the recession, including moves to connect networks and expand its international presence. "We will remain focused on, and continue to adapt to, the rapidly changing global economy to better align supply with demand," Anderson and Bastian wrote. Delta is the largest carrier flying out of Dayton International Airport.

Deutsche Bank plans record job cuts

Deutsche Bank is to shed 900 jobs as it moves to reshape its investment banking operations. The cuts are the biggest to be instituted by Germany's largest bank and will fall mainly in New York and London, the key centres of its global markets business. The move means a reduction of about 12% in Deutsche's 7,000-strong global markets team, led from London by Anshu Jain. Deutsche is reducing its exposure to several business lines including its trading of "exotic" structured products such as collateralised debt obligations. Deutsche is also cutting jobs in credit origination, such as bond underwriting, and in proprietary trading. But it is also expected to expand staff in areas where it foresees growth, such as forex – where it has the largest market share – and commodities trading. It is also beefing up its cash equities business in anticipation of growth in so-called algorithmic equities trading. The cuts, to be implemented in coming weeks, are not thought to affect Deutsche's global banking division, led by Michael Cohrs, which employs about 4,000.

BlackRock to Cut Jobs for First Time as Funds Shrink

BlackRock Inc., the largest publicly traded asset manager in the U.S., is cutting jobs for the first time in its 20-year history as slumping financial markets force the mutual-fund industry to shrink. Dismissal notices are being issued this week, New York- based BlackRock said in a memo yesterday to its 5,500 employees. Some employees in the BlackRock's alternative-investment division were told yesterday they their jobs were being eliminated, said a person familiar with the matter. Bobbie Collins, a BlackRock spokeswoman, said details wouldn't be made public until next year. ``Times like these require fiscal discipline,'' the unsigned memo said. ``We expect it of the companies in which we invest, and we must expect it of ourselves.'' BlackRock said Oct. 21 that third-quarter earnings fell 15 percent, the first drop in two years, as investors pulled money from its funds. Assets declined 12 percent to $1.26 trillion. Fidelity Investments, the world's largest mutual-fund company, Janus Capital Group Inc. and Putnam Investments are among the money managers that plan to eliminate 3,500 positions to cope with market losses and client defections. Market Pressure BlackRock's memo, a copy of which was obtained by Bloomberg News, didn't disclose the number of people and the positions affected. ``Considering the pressure that has been brought to bear on asset levels and revenues at BlackRock, this is not a surprise,'' Robert Lee, an analyst with Keefe, Bruyette & Woods Inc. in New York, said in an interview. ``You can't adjust your expenses fast enough.'' BlackRock manages about $71 billion in its alternative- investment unit, which has hedge funds, real estate and private- equity funds. The firm has $502 billion in bonds and $351 billion in stock funds. Lee, who rates BlackRock shares ``market-perform,'' said administrative, transaction processing and marketing jobs are typically the first to go, while investment-management jobs are the last. BlackRock fell 16 cents to $106.24 at 4:15 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. The shares have declined 51 percent this year, compared with the 55 percent drop in the 16- member Standard & Poor's index that tracks asset management firms and custody banks. The S&P 500 Index has tumbled 41 percent this year, the biggest decline since 1931. Credit-related losses and writedowns at financial firms have topped $966 billion, threatening global economic growth. Global Cuts Banks and brokerages worldwide have announced more than 166,000 job cuts since the subprime-mortgage market's collapse last year. Citigroup Inc., the fourth-biggest U.S. bank by market value, said yesterday it will slash 52,000 workers. ``A wide variety of businesses across industries and regions have reported weak third-quarter results and even weaker expectations for fourth quarter 2008 and for 2009,'' BlackRock said in the memo, which was reported by the Wall Street Journal yesterday. ``BlackRock is not immune.'' Chief Executive Officer Laurence Fink, 56, who co-founded the company in 1988, said last week he saw signs of ``capitulation,'' a broad selloff that usually comes before the end of a bear market. Fund Withdrawals ``A year ago, I said we won't see a bottom until we see a capitulation,'' Fink, said at a Nov. 11 investment conference in New York. ``We are seeing a capitulation,'' and a recovery may begin by mid-2009, he said. The bankruptcy in September of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and losses at a money-market fund run by Reserve Management Corp. triggered $53.8 billion in withdrawals from BlackRock's cash and securities-lending funds during the three months ended Sept. 30. Investors also pulled $6.7 billion from stock and bond funds. Fidelity, based in Boston, is cutting 3,000 jobs, or 7 percent of its 44,400-member workforce, after assets declined about 13 percent in the first nine months of the year. Denver- based Janus is eliminating about 115 jobs, or 9 percent. Boston- based Putnam said yesterday it fired 12 fund managers and eliminated 35 other positions, a reduction of about 2 percent. The fund industry employed 168,000 people as of 2007, according to Washington, D.C.-based Investment Company Institute. About 27 percent of those employees were fund managers, while 36 percent provide services to investors and their accounts, according to ICI. Jobs related to fund administration accounted for 11 percent, and distribution and sales jobs accounted for the remainder.

Job cuts expected from Canadian banks next week

Canadian banks will likely join their U.S. counterparts by cutting jobs when they report quarterly and year-end results next week, Dundee Capital Markets portfolio strategist Martin Roberge predicted. Canadian banks are struggling with thin net interest margins and weak activity in both lending and capital markets. But they have been reluctant to pare down employment to offset weak revenue growth prospects, Mr. Roberge told clients. As a result, productivity continues to fall with no earnings recovery in sight, he said. While Canadian banks may historically be quick to cut labour costs when revenue growth prospects are bleak, employment growth remains 2.9% year-over-year. Labour costs are up 5.9%, while revenue growth is nearly flat at just 1%, Mr. Roberge noted. "The net result is a marked deterioration in productivity at Canadian banks," he said. "This is a disturbing development given that a productivity rebound has traditionally preceded all key rebounds in relative price and earnings strength." He added that the banks are likely past their worst point in terms of relative price performance but the group still lacks the earnings leadership for price strength to persist. Anything short of layoff announcements from Canada's banks will prolong what Mr. Roberge called the "Chinese-water-torture" decline in productivity, threatening the 2009 earnings outlook. For the rest of 2008, he predicted that Canadian banks will do no better than matching the broader market's performance.

Canadian TV Network Cutting Jobs

Toronto, Ontario (AHN) - One of Canada's major television networks announced on Tuesday plans to reduce its manpower due to declining advertising revenues. CTVglobemedia Incorporated chief executive officer Ivan Fecan, in a memo to the station's staff, said it will discuss cost cutting measures to be implemented in response to the economic slow down. Fecan said among the measures the station is considering are lay offs, free hiring, cutting of jobs and reduction in discretionary expenses. He is scheduled to discuss the proposal with employees on Wednesday. CTV's decision followed the announcement last week by its competitor, CanWest Global Communications Corporation, of plans to cut 560 jobs to save $61 million a year. Fecan said he decided to meet the employees so they will hear first hand the news concerning the cost cutting steps instead of knowing about it from rumors. CTVglobemedia also owns the daily Globe and Mail and Chum radio.

Morgan Stanley cutting jobs in biggest business

NEW YORK - Morgan Stanley on Wednesday outlined plans to cut 10 percent of staff in its biggest business, which covers everything from investment banking to stock trading. The nation's No. 2 securities firm, which converted into a bank holding company in September, plans to scale back its most capital-intensive businesses before the end of the year. The layoffs inside the institutional securities group follow a 10 percent cut made earlier this year to the same group.   Morgan Stanley also plans to restructure its money management business by cutting 9 percent of the staff there. It was not immediately clear how many positions will ultimately be eliminated from the company's total ranks of about 44,000.

Air New Zealand to cut 200 jobs

WELLINGTON, Nov 19 (Reuters) - National carrier Air New Zealand (AIR.NZ: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) plans to cut up to 200 full-time jobs in response to falling passenger numbers, it said on Wednesday. The company said it has been reducing capacity in line with falling demand and needed to reduce its workforce accordingly. About half of the redundancies will hit long-haul cabin crew, with technical, planning and management jobs also to be axed. It said it had tried to minimise the cuts by offering reduced hours, not replacing some jobs and freezing executive pay. "However these measure will not fully address the excess staff levels we now have as a result of these capacity reductions, especially in the long haul business where capacity is being reduced by 8 percent when compared with the last financial year," Chief Executive Rob Fyfe said in a statement. Savings from the staff cuts, combined with a company-wide review of spending, are expected to be more than NZ$20 million ($11 million) a year. Air New Zealand, which is 76 percent owned by the state, has 11,000 full-time staff. In its September operating statistics, the company said passenger numbers were down 4.5 percent on September 2007, with passenger loads down 2.5 percentage points to 77.8 percent. In the trans-Tasman and Pacific markets, Air New Zealand said passenger numbers were down 10 percent and load factors fell 7 percentage points. In the year to June 2008, Air New Zealand's net profit fell 1 percent to NZ$218 million, largely due to higher fuel prices. Shares in Air New Zealand last traded down a cent or 1.1 percent at NZ$0.90 in a broader market down 0.5 percent .NZ50 Airlines across the globe have been cutting staff and flights to reduce costs to counter falling demand and spiralling fuel costs. ($1=NZ$1.82) (Reporting by Adrian Bathgate and Gyles Beckford)

Wolseley to cut 2,300 jobs

Wolseley, the world's biggest trade distributor of plumbing and heating supplies, said today it was cutting 2,000 jobs in the UK as the economic downturn continues to bite. The group, which ealier this year said it was cutting more than 5,000 jobs, mainly in the US, warned the cost cutting programme involved the closure of some 200 of its 1,700 UK branches. Overall Wolseley employs around 14,000 people in the UK. Wolseley is the latest in a string of UK companies to announce plans for UK job losses, including BT, Yell, Virgin Media, GlaxoSmithKline and JCB. Wolseley said that in the three months to the end of October profit before tax, exceptional items, amortisation and impairment charges was down 45% while net debt was up 8% at £2.7bn because of adverse currency movements. Chip Hornsby, chief executive, said: "While these results reflect a further deterioration in the business environment in the first quarter it was not unexpected, and, we continue to react swiftly to market conditions with aggressive but measured cost reduction. "In these unprecedented circumstances, the key priorities remain driving cost reduction and enhancing cash flow to ensure the group remains compliant with its banking covenants." Wolseley said that in Europe, revenues in sterling terms were marginally ahead in the three months to the end of October but trading profit was down 50% - largely as a result of lower profitability in the UK. Revenues from the UK, where the company shed some 170 jobs over the quarter, and Ireland fell 10% and trading profit was down 65%. "There has been a rapid deterioration in the UK market activity although our expectation of the likely scale of the downturn has not change materially since our outlook statement at the final results announcement in September 2008." Wolseley said the cuts in the UK would result in exceptional costs of £45m but should reduce annualised costs by at least £80m. The group is also cutting 380 jobs in the Nordic region over the next three months as the market deteriorates following the withdrawal of developers from a large number of construction sites in the region.

No Layoff- Google looking to hire more people in India

Notwithstanding the current economic slowdown, Google India is looking to hire more people. According to Google, India has been a growth market for the company and is likely to offer consistent growth even in the future.

HSBC announced it would cut 500 jobs in Asia

Bankers in Asia, until now largely immune to the fallout from the global financial crisis, are feeling increasingly  vulnerable. On Tuesday, HSBC announced it would cut 500 jobs in Asia. And Citigroup's roughly 50,000 employees in Asia were faced with the grim reality that some of Monday's sweeping job cuts could hit them. In addition, a sharp fall in profit at Japan's biggest bank, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, on Tuesday hammered home the message that the financial community in the Asia-Pacific region is likely to face increasing job cuts. Strong growth in most Asian economies and a lack of exposure to U.S. subprime mortgages have helped shield Asian banks from the mass layoffs of those on Wall Street and in London. But as the crisis drags on and deepens, and places like Japan and Hong Kong slip into recession, Asian banks are coming under pressure. "The financial crisis is well and truly here now," said Andrew Oliver, managing director at Profile Search & Selection, an executive search firm in Hong Kong. The bulk of HSBC's 500 job cuts in Asia were planned for Hong Kong, where the unemployment rate in the financial capital edged up to 3.5 percent in the period from August through October, from 3.4 percent in the July through September period, figures showed Tuesday. Citigroup shocked the financial community late on Monday with news that it was laying off 52,000 staff, or 14 percent of its work force, much more than the roughly 25,000 job cuts the bank had previously announced. The U.S. banking giant, which employs just over 50,000 people in the Asia-Pacific region, on Tuesday declined to provide a regional breakdown as to where the ax would fall, though the losses will be focused on the United States, and leave Asia-Pacific relatively unscathed, a person with direct knowledge of the situation said. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the job cuts. Mitsubishi UFJ reported that its profits had plummeted 61 percent in the three months to the end of September. The bank made no comments about any possible job cuts, but the profit drop highlighted how Japanese banks are being squeezed and bankers across the region are scared for their future. Likewise, Morgan Stanley and Credit Suisse, which have also recently announced job losses - though on a smaller scale than those at Citigroup - give no geographical breakdowns, spokespeople at the banks in Hong Kong said on Tuesday. Most of the Asia-based jobs at Lehman Brothers, the Wall Street stalwart that collapsed in mid-September, are safe, with Nomura taking over the bank's Asian operations and some 2,600 staff. And job losses on the back of the collapse of Bear Stearns also were limited, as the U.S. bank had only 500 employees in Asia when JPMorgan acquired the collapsed bank. Still, the sheer magnitude of the losses announced by Citigroup late on Monday hit home the message that bankers' jobs in Asia-Pacific are not guaranteed to be safe. As the list of job cuts by international banking giants lengthened in recent months, bankers in cities like Hong Kong, Singapore and Tokyo have grown more and more worried that their relative immunity from the downturn would not last forever. Earlier this month, Australia & New Zealand Banking Group, based in Melbourne, said it would cut more than 500 jobs to contain costs amid the global financial downturn. And DBS, based in Singapore, said it would cut 900 jobs, or 6 percent of its work force, in Singapore and Hong Kong after a steep fall in quarterly profits. Firms like Michael Page, Robert Walters and Profile Search & Selection all report that they have received considerably more résumés from potential job candidates in recent months. David Swan, director financial services at Robert Walters in Tokyo, said: "The vast majority of these CVs have come from people who have already been laid off or from those who see a lay off as imminent. The sentiment of those who are currently employed has become much more conservative and we see very few employed people seeking new opportunities in the finance industry." So far Tokyo has been less affected by job cuts than other major financial centers, mainly because Japanese banks have appeared comparatively healthy. However, Japan and Hong Kong slipped into recession during the third quarter of this year, data over the past week showed, while the sharp fall in the stock markets this year has also taken its toll on Japanese banks' capital adequacy ratios. This prompted Moody's, the ratings agency, to warn last month: "The decline in the equity markets has been very rapid, and if not stabilized, Japanese banking fundamentals may be undermined."   With banks generally not keen to release detailed breakdowns, statistics of the number of job losses in the sector in Asia are hard to come by. Still, Swan estimates that "most of the major foreign institutions in Tokyo appear to have cut around 10 percent of staff numbers, which equates to about 100 to 200 on average per company." Said Matt Robinson, an economist at Moody's Economy.com in Sydney: "As one of the world's financial centers and with the Japanese economy sliding into recession, Tokyo will inevitably feel the effects of the intensifying turmoil in global financial markets." Reforms implemented in the past decade or so have gone some way toward insulating Japanese banks from the problems experienced in the United States and Europe, Robinson said, but there is "emerging evidence that Japanese banks are now coming under pressure, while unemployment in the capital is rising from the multiyear low recorded in mid-2007." A similar story is becoming evident in Sydney and Melbourne, where several financial institutions are making large payroll cuts. The unemployment rate in New South Wales jumped from 4.8 percent to 5.2 percent last month, in part because of the downturn being witnessed in Sydney's financial sector, Robinson said. With all this, there are widespread expectations - in Asia as much as in the United States and Europe - that bonuses will be minimal. "At this stage, most people in the finance industry are expecting little to no bonus for 2008," said Swan at Robert Walters. No wonder that bankers in Hong Kong, Singapore, Tokyo - though still not hit by mass layoffs - have long been reining in spending. " I have been here during the Asian financial crisis, the downturn during SARS and the dotcom bubble bursting, and the feeling is very similar now," said Oliver of the Profile Search & Selection executive search firm. "Only the foolhardy," he said, would not be exploring the job market for alternative employers.

Yahoo! to Axe 10% of all Staff Globally

TechCrunch today has got their hands on a letter that Jerry Yang has shot out to all "yahoos" briefing them on the plan of action, including layoffs, after the announcement that 3rd Quarter earnings were pretty much flat, having only grown 1% to US$1.79 billion. The email, written in all lower case (perhaps strategically), makes reference to the current economic downturn and informs all employees that in an effort to cut costs by US$400 million by the end of 2008, upwards of 10% of the staff will be downsized over the next 2 months. A snippet of his email pointing out that the decision is based on external advice to the company;   Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang sent the email below to all Yahoo'ers at 2:20 pm PST, after earnings were announced.Besides being all lowercase, as usual, he lets everyone know that the company will be letting 10% of employees go to help save $400 million in annual costs. Jerry Yang, of course, will not be among the layoffs. The full email: From: Jerry Yang [mailto:jerry@yahoo-inc.com] Sent: Tuesday, October 21, 2008 2:20 PM To: all-worldwide@yahoo-inc.com Subject: update yahoos, i feel it's important for me to reach out to you after our earnings announcement, and before our all hands meeting tomorrow. we as a company have been through a tremendously challenging year; and managing the increasingly turbulent global advertising climate has been an important focus for the last three months. throughout the first three quarters of 2008, we have been balancing between investing in our top priorities, and managing our cost structure. beginning in september, with the help of Bain & Co., we initiated a series of steps to determine how we can become more efficient and productive as an organization. we heard from you through the YEES survey, and through your suggestions on backyard, and we've identified many areas that we all feel we can improve upon. our productivity efforts, based in part on what we heard from you, will involve initiatives such as streamlining our organizational structure through reducing layers and increasing spans of control, and eliminating redundancies. longer term structural efficiencies include consolidating facilities, improving procurement, and standardizing our global technology platforms. today as part of our q3 earnings release, we said that our goal is to reduce our current annualized cost run rate of roughly $3.9 billion by more than $400 million before the end of 2008. we are targeting non-headcount expenses wherever possible, such as facilities and outside services. however, because compensation expenses are the single largest part of our costs, we anticipate a reduction of at least 10% of our global workforce by year-end. affected employees will be notified of layoffs in the next several weeks. we understand that hearing this news now creates uncertainty, but we are moving ahead in a way that balances speed with a clear focus on accomplishing what is necessary to set the organization up for long term success. going forward it will continue to be important for us to make the right decisions to keep our business efficient and strong. having layoffs is very difficult, particularly in light of all we've experienced this year. but we don't take these decisions lightly, and are committed to treating affected employees fairly, offering severance and outplacement services. the steps we are taking are not easy for us as a company, but as we become more fit as an organization, decision-making will be faster and it will be easier for us all to get more done and stay focused on our strategy. these changes will also prepare us to better deal with the macroeconomic downturn. as with previous downturns, yahoo! continues to be a place where consumers turn for information and communications, and is an integral part of their internet day. as the global economy improves in the future, i certainly believe that we will be stronger and benefit from the actions we are taking now. as always, i thank you for all you do as yahoos. best, jerry

3,000 jobs cut in Pepsi

Pepsi Bottling Group Inc., which bottles Pepsi beverages, on Tuesday cut its 2008 profit outlook and announced a restructuring plan that will affect more than 3,000 jobs worldwide.
The bottler said it will refine its selling and service organization, lower its general and administrative expenses, make its supply chain more efficient and modify its defined benefit pension plans in the U.S. and Canada.
The company said about 750 jobs will be affected, and four facilities in the U.S. will be closed.
In Europe, Pepsi Bottling said it will "streamline its organization," which will affect about 200 jobs.
Pepsi Bottling (PBG, Fortune 500) said in Mexico, it will close three plants and 30 distribution centers and will eliminate 700 routes over time. Those changes will affect about 2,200 jobs, the company said.
The company said it will likely save between $150 million to $160 million each year once the restructuring is completed. Pepsi Bottling expects to save at least $70 million in 2009.
The cost of the program is expected to result in charges between $140 million and $170 million. In the fourth quarter, Pepsi Bottling said it will report a charge of between $80 million and $100 million, or 27 cents to 32 cents per share.
In addition to the restructuring charges, the company said it will report an impairment charge of $1.25 per share related to its business in Mexico due to a reduction in value of a water business there.
For 2008, the company now expects adjusted profit for the fiscal year between $2.20 and $2.26 per share. Previously, the company had expected adjusted earnings of $2.32 to $2.38 per share for the year.
Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expect profit of $2.35 per share, on average.
The guidance reduction was due to the weakening of foreign currencies and higher-than-expected interest costs on the company's recent bond issuance.
Those items are expected to keep affecting profit in fiscal 2009, the company added.

TCS, other IT cos to slash hikes

BANGALORE: As india's tech firms prepare to protect their operating margins amidst a worsening economy, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is expected t o bring down their wage cost by not providing any salary hike to their employees next year. According to the analyst firm Cowen & Company , TCS, the country largest IT services exporter, could bring down its wage hike during financial year 2010 to almost zero. "Wage inflation is expected to moderate dramatically from over 12% to close to zero, which will help margins," Cowen &Company said in its recent note. When contacted, a TCS spokesperson said, "Salary hikes in TCS next fiscal are likely to be lower than this year. Wage hikes in India in FY09 were 10% as against 15% in FY08." The IT industry in India is under tremendous pressure especially with the downturn in the US and European economies and dwindling order flows. Companies are seeking to reduce their operational costs through various measures. One of key component of reducing costs for the IT companies will be wages as this accounts for nearly 40% of their operating costs. Another IT services major Wipro has already announced a 7-8 % hike in wages for its offshore employees while for Infosys it has been in the range of 11-13 %. According to Vati Consulting's (a HR consultancy firm) Amitabh Das, the average hike for the IT industry in the current calendar year has been in the range of 8-10 %, down from the previous year's level of 15-18 %. In the last couple of years, wage hikes were in double-digit percentage owing to a higher demand for skilled IT professionals, and with many companies, including foreign IT firms, going after the same pool of potential workers. However, with demand for IT services slowing down, things have changed dramatically.

Citigroup to cut 53,000 jobs

New York: Hit by massive losses, banking giant Citigroup Monday announced to cut about 53,000 jobs in the coming months and slash its expenditure by 20 percent next year. The measures are part of the Citigroup's efforts to overcome the huge losses it has suffered in the last four straight quarters, including $2.8 billion in the third quarter. The company, headed by Indian American Vikram Pandit, posted its plans on its website Monday morning. This was also discussed by Pandit, the Citigroup CEO, at a town hall meeting with its employees in New York. With this, the strength of Citigroup would come down from its peak of 375,000 in 2007 to 300,000 employees. In October, the company announced to cut 22,000 jobs. The banking giant also said it is planning to reduce its expenses by one-fifth. The announcement comes a day after seven Goldman Sachs top executives announced to forgo their bonuses, running into millions of dollars, as part of their effort to overcome current credit crisis.

Sun Microsystems cuts 6,000 jobs

California based Sun Microsystems yesterday announced that it was shedding 6,000 jobs, in a move that Jonathan Schwartz, CEO of Sun, said was designed to "align Sun's business with global economic realities."   The move will shrink Sun's workforce by 15-18%, according to a press release published by the company.   Sun have also stated that US$ 700 to $800 million dollars per year should be saved by the move, which will cost $500 to $600 million to implement over the next twelve months. Rick Hanna, an equity analyst for Morningstar Inc, commented on the move. "They still have strong cash on the balance sheet, and they're still generating free cash flow, so they're not dead yet, but the patient is definitely on the respirator," he said.. "I can't imagine for a second the board would be satisfied with Sun's current performance. . . . What's happening with Sun at this point is figuring out how to maximize what's left." Sun also announced yesterday that it will "accelerate our delivery of key open source platform innovations."

DHL may lay off thousands

The corporate owner of DHL -- is planning to announce a cost-cutting program Monday that could result in as many as 40,000 layoffs at DHL, according to the Associated Press. About half the planned layoffs could take place at DHL's U.S. Express business, which competes with larger rivals UPS

Companies in the shipping space have been hit hard by the global slowdown. Last month, Deutsche Post cut back its earnings forecasts for this year and next, predicting that pretax profit will fall 8% in the third quarter.
Deutsche Post is reportedly planning a news conference Monday to outline the cost-reduction plan.

GM to lay off 1900 additional factory workers

General Motors Corp. says it plans to lay off another 1,900 factory workers at parts stamping, engine and transmission factories in North America as it cuts expenses to deal with a worsening cash crisis.
The largest U.S. automaker said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday that the layoffs are a result of declining sales.
Spokesman Tony Sapienza said the cuts are in addition to 3,600 factory layoffs announced by the company on Friday.
GM announced a $2.5 billion third-quarter loss on Friday and said it may run out of cash before the end of 2008.

12000 losing Jobs

Orange Planning to Cut there India operation , which is expecting to a loss of 12000 employment . Orange's Cheif Executive informed that this decision is to improve there customer satisfaction . Orange has more that 1.5 crore customers. He added that , if will give approximate 12000 Jobs in Britain.

GM job cuts ... Oh Nooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!

Toronto, Ontario - Canadian Auto Workers Union (CAW) national president Ken Lewenza has called the announcement of 500 temporary job cuts at General Motors’ Oshawa, Ontario car plant “terrible news” and “further evidence of the need for government support of Canada’s failing auto industry.”
“Today’s new is devastating to our members in Oshawa,” Lewenza said, in response to GM’s announcement that it intends to slow down production at the plant to adjust to declining market conditions. “If there is a silver lining, it’s the fact that these are temporary and not permanent layoffs.”
Lewenza said he believes the latest round of job cuts should prompt the federal government to act quickly and lend support to the auto sector in a fashion similar to its support of the Canadian banking sector. “The U.S. government has already approved $25 billion in support for the beleagured auto industry,” Lewenza said. “By contrast, there hasn’t been any similar sense of urgency from our federal government to act, and that has to change.”
Lewenza also pointed out that the GM cuts follow an announcement of 470 layoffs at the Navistar truck plant in Chatham, Ontario, and another 500 job losses in Ingersoll, Ontario at the CAMI plant, a joint venture of GM and Suzuki.

Ford job cuts

Ford Motor reported a $3 billion quarterly operating loss on Friday and said it would reduce staff and capital spending in order to preserve its dwindling cash.
Ford said it would cut salaried employment costs by 10% - reducing compensation of its white collar workers by eliminating merit pay, bonuses and the company's matching contributions to their retirement accounts.
But even with those savings, the company said it's likely to lay off more salaried staffers. It also said hourly staff - mostly factory workers covered by union contracts - would be reduced by an additional 2,600 through a voluntary buyout package.
The company, which earlier this year sold brands such as Jaguar and Land Rover, said it would continue to look to sell assets.
Ford Chief Executive Alan Mulally warned that while the company is confident that it is taking the right steps to respond to the downturn, it does not see a quick turnaround in demand for autos in either North America or Europe.
"We believe the downturn in industry volume will be broader, deeper and longer than previously expected," he said during a conference call. Sales volume isn't expected to improve until 2010, he said.
Ford's loss came to $1.31 a share, excluding special items, far worse than the penny a share loss it reported on that basis a year earlier. Analysts surveyed by earnings tracker Thomson Reuters had forecast a loss of 93 cents a share.
The company had a one-time gain of $2.2 billion, related to the accounting of its retiree health care expenses. With that gain, it reported a net loss of $129 million, or 6 cents a share, an improvement from the $380 million, or 19 cents a share, it lost on that basis a year earlier.
While the company did not give any specific guidance on results going forward, Chief Financial Officer Lewis Booth said the current quarter could see a larger increase in losses than seen in the third quarter.
But the operating losses continued to burn through the company's cash position, leaving with its auto operations with only $18.9 billion in cash on hand at the end of the quarter, down $6.3 billion from the start of the quarter.
Concern has been growing that the nation's automakers could run out of cash as soon as next year due to rising losses and high borrowing costs faced by the companies. Ford had been considered to be in the best cash position of the three U.S.-based automakers.
Ford, which saw the volume of its U.S. vehicle sales plunge 25% in the quarter, reported that overall revenue tumbled by $9 billion in the quarter to $32.1 billion. High gasoline prices at the start of the quarter, followed by tight credit, increased job losses and record lows for consumer confidence late in the quarter combined to keep potential auto buyers on the sidelines.
The company disclosed that its fourth-quarter vehicle production would be cut by an additional 40,000 from previous plans. That will leave its quarterly production target at 430,000, down roughly a third from year-ago levels.
Ford said it will move ahead with product development plans for most vehicles, especially for smaller, more fuel efficient vehicles. But it plans to reduce spending on the development of large vehicles and will delay other unspecified vehicles "that will be deferred until industry volumes recover."
Ford also announced it would seek to raise additional cash by using equity-for-debt swaps. But the company's stock has already lost about three-quarters of its value in the last 12 months. Automotive investor Kirk Kerkorian, who invested just over $1 billion in Ford shares earlier this year, has started selling that stake at a large loss and has said he may get out of the company's stock altogether.
Ford (F, Fortune 500) is not the only automaker seeing trouble. Rival General Motors (GM, Fortune 500) is forecast to report a jump in losses in the quarter later in the day Friday. On Thursday, Japanese rival Toyota Motor (TM), which is poised to see its first annual decline in U.S. auto sales, slashed its earnings outlook for its current fiscal year.
The chief executives of GM, Ford and privately-held Chrysler LLC, as well as the president of the United Auto Workers union, met with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on Thursday to seek support for a wide-ranging bailout package for the industry. Both leaders voiced support for additional help for the sector following their meetings.
Mulally said he was encouraged by the discussions with members of Congress, but added that Ford isn't counting on additional federal help because it can't be sure of what will be approved. He also disclosed that Ford is also talking to governments in other countries where it has operations as well.
Ford would be willing to discuss granting stock or stock warrants to the U.S. government in return for getting help, Mulally said. No details of such an equity stake in the automaker had been discussed, he added.
Among the topics discussed were a $25 billion loan to fund union-controlled trust funds that would be set up in the coming year to cover the health care costs of retirees and their family members. Shifting about $100 billion of those costs from the automakers' balance sheet to the trust funds was a key concession the companies won from the UAW in the 2007 labor deals.
The discussions also touched upon allowing the automakers to tap into the $700 billion bailout of Wall Street firms and the nation's banks that was passed by Congress last month. Treasury has so far rejected auto-industry inquiries about accessing that pool of money.
The automakers also renewed their pre-election request to double the $25 billion low-interest loan program approved by Congress, as part of energy legislation, to help automakers convert to making more fuel-efficient vehicles in an effort to meet the demands of car buyers and new federal rules.

Dell asks workers to take unpaid leave

Dell employees received a memo from founder and CEO Michael Dell recently asking them to take some time off without pay.
It's not meant to be punitive, but rather a measure to help the Round Rock, Texas, company save some money as the economy continues on its uncertain path. The request made to employees is also an effort to avoid possible layoffs, according to a report in the Austin Business Journal.
A Dell spokesman confirmed the memo's existence and said that it was part of a wider program of cost saving that had been instituted. Besides offering one to five days of unpaid leave, the company has also placed a temporary freeze on new hires, eliminated contract employees, and offered severance packages to workers to leave voluntarily.
Though Dell recently met its goal of cutting its employee rolls by 10 percent, the memo stated that more layoffs could be coming if these cost-cutting measures didn't achieve the desired results, which Dell did not specify.
The company recently reported a 17 percent dip in earnings after a year of showing signs of good growth.

Nokia to cut 600 jobs

The world's leading maker of mobile phones, Nokia of Finland, said that it would cut almost 600 jobs, mainly in its sales and marketing division. "As a follow-up to Nokia's reorganisation in the beginning of 2008, Nokia plans further changes in its sales and marketing activities in the markets unit," it said in a statement. "Nokia estimates that approximately 450 employees, maximum 100 in Finland, in the markets unit will be affected by the planned changes," the company said, adding that another 130 employees at the Nokia Research Centre (NRC) would also be affected.

IBS fired 130 Employees

IBS fired 130 Employees. The officials said that , the employees who are performing poor are being fired. But , there were some employes who have some track record in the fired list

What the technology layoffs tell us about entrepreneurial management

What the technology layoffs tell us about entrepreneurial management
TechCrunch is tallying a list of startups that are undergoing significant layoffs. (Interestingly, it's not seeing much noise from Europe on that front.)

Every day we're hearing about yet another startup (or established technology vendor) going through layoffs. This may mean that the companies are battening down the hatches in preparation for a nuclear economic winter, but it also likely means that these same companies haven't been prudently managing their VC's investments.

It took Sequoia Capital to describe the obvious: we're in a tight, recessionary economy. But any CEO worth her salt should have seen this long ago. I wrote back in February about a pending recession and its effects on open-source startups like SugarCRM, but I was no prophet: everyone was talking about a weakening economy.

I guess it took the collapse of a few financial institutions to convince us that we actually have to start treating our companies like businesses, not Monopoly games. Perhaps we were distracted by cutesy Web 2.0 names. More likely we were distracted by the cutesy Web 2.0 revenue models that are long on marketing and short on substance.
Source

Yahoo plans cost-cutting moves, layoffs

Yahoo is expected to announce cost-cutting moves this week as part of cost-cutting moves, including another round of layoffs, according to a report Sunday in the Wall Street Journal.

The exact number of layoffs is unknown, but job cuts are expected to come from all departments in the 14,300-employee company, according to the report. Yahoo, which announces its third-quarter earnings on Tuesday, has reportedly asked managers to identify areas where the company can achieve operating budget reductions of 15 percent. In February, Yahoo laid off an estimated 1,100 employees in a bid to cut costs and trim operations that weren't performing as well as others.

Rumors of layoffs at Yahoo have been circulating for weeks, with Alley Insider's Henry Blodget calling for the elimination of 3,000 jobs at the company.

However, Yahoo's stock has been under tremendous pressure lately, closing at $12.90 on Friday. Just a week before that, the Internet giant's stock traded as low as $11.37, its lowest price since March 2003. Yahoo, as a result, also now has a market cap of $17.88 billion. Last May, Microsoft walked away from its buyout offer of $47.5 billion to snap up all of Yahoo, only later to return with a partial buyout offer of $9 billion to acquire just the company's search assets.

Indeed, my colleague Dawn Kawamoto cited the company's declining stock price as a chief reason Yahoo executives should be nervous about their company's future.

No doubt, most tech companies are getting pummeled on Wall Street, but Yahoo's drop has to be particularly galling, given how much more Microsoft was willing to pay for the company.

Yahoo's stock price got a goose on Thursday after Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer noted Yahoo's declining stock price in saying that a takeover of the Internet search pioneer still made sense, putting even more pressure on Yahoo executives.

Although Yahoo's shares continue to give up ground, the company's stock performance during recent trading sessions has largely mirrored the broader markets. Indeed, many tech companies have resorted to layoffs recently to stem their financial losses.

Jet Airways calls back layoffed staff to work

MUMBAI: It was a night of high drama for India's aviation industry. Bowing to the considerable political backlash, an emotional Naresh Goyal, chairman of Jet Airways,

announced the rescinding of the decision to sack 1,900 employees. Mr Goyal announced the decision at a hurriedly convened press conference at the company's Mumbai headquarters at around 11.30 PM on Thursday night. Mr Goyal flew in from Hyderabad, and headed straight for the press conference. While 800 probationers had been handed pink slips, 1,100 more were likely to face the axe in the next few days, before Mr Goyal's late night announcements. Mr Goyal claimed that he was unaware of the reasons for the retrenchment of the employees. He said that the decision was that of the company's top management, who were responding to the difficult economic situation which the company was facing, and that he himself wasn't aware of the details. Mr Goyal, who described himself as the father of the Jet family, said that he couldn't sleep after seeing the tears in the eyes of some of the sacked employees. "My conscience doesn't allow me to look at the mere economics only. I know that these are difficult times, but we will have to work together to find a way out of the crisis." He went on to reiterate that the decision to take back the retrenched employees was entirely his, and that nobody had forced him to do so. "I didn't consult anybody before taking the decision. Only my wife knew about it, and she's here to lend moral support." It is possible that the employees who had just escaped being sacked may have to accept some salary reductions, but this could not be confirmed.
"Mr Goyal is like a god to us," said one of the sacked cabin crew after the late night u-turn. Despite Mr Goyal's protestations of not being influenced by political pressure, such pressure had in fact been considerable ever since the company announced the decision to sack the employees. Apart from the threats from MNS chief Raj Thackeray to ground the airline, petroleum minister Murli Deora also criticised Jet's decision. For good measure, Mr Deora termed Jet Airways as a defaulter because of its failure to pay its fuel bills. Mr Goyal who seemed to be under some stress, became emotional in the course of the press conference, which was telecast live. Mr Goyal said that as head of the Jet family, he would like to see the smile back on the faces of his staffers, and asked them to resume duties on Friday morning. Despite the fact that the airline industry is going through rough times, he said that they would do whatever it takes to make Jet Airways a profitable company once again.

Citigroup cut 11,000 jobs this quarter

Citigroup has also cut 11,000 jobs this quarter, which about 3% of its staff, totaling 23,000 job cuts for the year.
These results are bound to bring down the US markets, and subsequently the Asian and European market. The BSE and NSE both closed down by 2.11%.
Results included $4.4 billion in net pre-tax write-downs in Securities and Banking, $4.9 billion in net credit losses, and a $3.9 billion net charge to increase loan loss reserves. The bank also said that it has slashed approximately 11,000 jobs in this quarter, totaling 23,000 job cuts this year. This is the fourth consequent loss that has been reported by Citigroup.
Citigroup, the biggest US bank by assets reported $2.8 billion (or $0.60 per share) losses in the third quarter, after getting hit by credit losses, reserves for bad loans and write-downs for mortgage-related securities. To add to this, Merrill Lynch also reported a net loss from continuing operations for the third quarter of 2008 of $5.2 billion, or $5.58 per diluted share.
"While our third quarter results reflect both a difficult environment as well as continued write-downs on our legacy assets, we are making excellent progress on the parts of our business we control, including expense reduction, headcount, and balance sheet and capital management. We expect these improvements will enable us to realize the full earnings power of our franchise as the economy stabilizes," said a hopeful Vikram Pandit, Chief Executive Officer of Citi, in a release.
Citigroup is also selling off some its businesses to strengthen its balance sheet. Earlier this year it sold off its German retail banking unit to France's Credit Mutuel for $7.7 billion. It has sold its captive BPO arm Citigroup Global Services (CGSL) for $505 million. It has also put Citicorp Finance on the block in India. Citicorp Finance has a $1 billion commercial vehicle & construction equipment loan portfolio and Citi expects to sell it for Rs 850 crore. There were also reports of Citi mulling a stake sale in HDFC bank.

Citigroup cut 11,000 jobs this quarter

Citigroup has also cut 11,000 jobs this quarter, which about 3% of its staff, totaling 23,000 job cuts for the year.
These results are bound to bring down the US markets, and subsequently the Asian and European market. The BSE and NSE both closed down by 2.11%.
Results included $4.4 billion in net pre-tax write-downs in Securities and Banking, $4.9 billion in net credit losses, and a $3.9 billion net charge to increase loan loss reserves. The bank also said that it has slashed approximately 11,000 jobs in this quarter, totaling 23,000 job cuts this year. This is the fourth consequent loss that has been reported by Citigroup.
Citigroup, the biggest US bank by assets reported $2.8 billion (or $0.60 per share) losses in the third quarter, after getting hit by credit losses, reserves for bad loans and write-downs for mortgage-related securities. To add to this, Merrill Lynch also reported a net loss from continuing operations for the third quarter of 2008 of $5.2 billion, or $5.58 per diluted share.
"While our third quarter results reflect both a difficult environment as well as continued write-downs on our legacy assets, we are making excellent progress on the parts of our business we control, including expense reduction, headcount, and balance sheet and capital management. We expect these improvements will enable us to realize the full earnings power of our franchise as the economy stabilizes," said a hopeful Vikram Pandit, Chief Executive Officer of Citi, in a release.
Citigroup is also selling off some its businesses to strengthen its balance sheet. Earlier this year it sold off its German retail banking unit to France's Credit Mutuel for $7.7 billion. It has sold its captive BPO arm Citigroup Global Services (CGSL) for $505 million. It has also put Citicorp Finance on the block in India. Citicorp Finance has a $1 billion commercial vehicle & construction equipment loan portfolio and Citi expects to sell it for Rs 850 crore. There were also reports of Citi mulling a stake sale in HDFC bank.

Jet Airways planning to lay off 1000 Plus more employees

India's leading private carrier Jet Airways has decided to lay off 1,100 additional employees in the next few days, a top official said on Wednesday.

Earlier in the day, Jet said it has brought down 800 flight attendants and suspended its expansion programme, adding that it will also cut flights because of a slowdown in demand.

The additional layy offs would be across all categories and departments, Executive Director Saroj Datta told reporters in a televised press conference.

Spirit AeroSystems reducing staff - Boeing

Spirit AeroSystems might have to resort to more drastic measures to account for its reduced workload if a strike at Boeing continues into next month.
Most employees at Spirit have been on a three-day work schedule since the Machinists union went on strike Sept. 6, idling Boeing plants in Wichita and the Pacific Northwest. Spirit employs about 10,500 people in Wichita.
But Spirit president and chief executive Jeff Turner said in a memo to employees Wednesday that the company must look at other alternatives beyond a shortened workweek for employees supporting Boeing production programs should the strike last much past October.
"These alternatives, in the worst case, include the possibility of broad shutdowns and temporary layoffs, possibly as early as November," Turner said in the memo. "Hopefully, this alternative can be avoided."
Turner called the situation fluid and said Spirit is looking at all its options. He said the company will discuss those options with local union leaders.
"A shutdown is clearly not our preference but may be necessary in the weeks ahead if the strike continues," he said.
A shutdown and temporary layoffs could have a detrimental impact on the Wichita economy, a Wichita State University professor said.
Conservatively, Wichita could take a $5 million a week economic hit if most employees are temporarily laid off at Spirit, said John Wong, interim director of WSU's Hugo Wall School of Urban and Public Affairs.
The figure doesn't include the impact Spirit vendors may feel as well, he said.
It also would affect retailers and other businesses in Wichita, especially if it lingers into the holiday shopping season.
"With the loss of potentially millions of dollars of spending, it obviously looks dismal," Wong said.
Boeing Machinists went on strike after rejecting the company's contract offer by an overwhelming margin. About 27,000 Machinists, including 750 at Boeing Wichita, walked off the job.

LAY off in Chicago-based publishing and entertainment company

Playboy Enterprises Inc. said that cost-cutting measures will include laying off 55 people at the Chicago-based publishing and entertainment company. In a letter to employees, Chairman and Chief Executive Christie Hefner said that because of the economy's deterioration, it is "unavoidable that we reduce our cost structure to reflect current economic realities."Hefner's letter spells out a number of cost-cutting moves, including consolidating certain facilities and reducing travel outlays and overtime. Of 80 jobs to be cut, 25 are unfilled, she said.As of Feb. 29, Playboy reported it had 789 full-time employees.

Kingfisher and Jet sacking

Jet Retrenches 1900, Kingfisher To EmulateJet Airways announced sacking of total of 1900 staff. Both Kingfisher and Jet, India's biggest private carriers, are contemplating to lay off more employees as part of their strategy tosynergize resources and cut costs. Besides, both of them are also sending back 15 narrow bodied aircrafts to the leasing companies after the end of the leasing period later this year and in 2009.

Owing to the funds' crunch, Air India is set to get Rs 1000-1500 crore to meet its requirements, plus about Rs 1000 crore for working capital, from government, announced Civil Aviation minister Praful Patel in Hyderabad. The central government is mulling lowering tax rates and operating charges to help airlines hurt by rising ATF costs and huge losses. According to IATA (International Air Transport Association), India is one the most expensive places to buy jet fuel.

IT cos may cut 25K jobs

BANGALORE/NEW DELHI: The banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) segment is the largest outsourcing vertical for Indian technology players. The space contributes up to 40 per cent of the revenues for some top IT firms. The industry employs around 3,50,000 people in the BFSI space of which the top six players alone account for 180,000 jobs. The domain accounted for $10 billion of the total $32 billion revenues the industry posted during the last fiscal. What’s happening in the global financial markets can result in the loss of as many as 20,000 to 25,000 jobs in India. That means, the likes of Cognizant, TCS, Infosys, HCL, Wipro and Satyam will announce huge lay-offs over the next couple of quarters. According to Dr Naresh Malhan, MD, Manpower India , about 9 per cent of the people employed in the BFSI, insurance, IT and ITeS sectors in India risk losing their jobs as a result of the financial meltdown. However, he says the overall market remains robust, with other sectors like manufacturing and construction still very promising. Not everyone shares this view. “Many firms will also use the present economic environment as an excuse to cut flab,” says Uday Chawla, managing Partner, Transearch, India. “Letting go of people in good times is not acceptable, but is sure to escape media scrutiny in the current climate,” he adds. But what is a threat for some, is an opportunity for others. “Merrill Lynch and Lehman are respected for the quality of talent they attract and train. It’s an opportunity for small firms desperate for quality leadership,” says Sanjiv Sachar, partner, Egon Zehnder. Source

Lehman Brothers issues 24-hour short notice to Indian employees

Mumbai: Following its bankruptcy filing, Lehman Brothers is planning to lay off thousands of employees worldwide. In India also, the company employees are sitting tight in the offices. An employee from the company's Mumbai office said that the investment banker issued 24-hour short notice asking them to leave. In this regard, the bank's offshore development center, which houses over 100 employees at Wipro is expected to close down. Sources said that Mumbai office also is expected to be shut down shortly. However, when contacted, the company's Mumbai based officials denied to comment on the issue. The global investment bank's move to file bankruptcy has already lead to a loss of nearly Rs 2,000 crore for Indian companies in which Lehman had made equity investments. Lehman Brothers currently employs about 2,500 people in India and most of them are likely to lose their jobs.
Source

India and China hoping to gain talent as Wall Street lays off bankers

Within hours of Bank of America's agreeing to buy Merrill Lynch this week, the Indian financial services firm Ambit hired five Merrill executives, a sign that Asia hopes to gain from the huge Wall Street layoffs.
For China and India, whose economies are still expanding at well over 7 percent, the global crisis in the financial industry makes it easier to recruit bankers.
The governor of New York reckons that, in a worst-case scenario, 40,000 Wall Street jobs could be eliminated, and talk is swirling of more bank deals and mergers.
Lehman Brothers, which has filed for bankruptcy protection, has about 2,000 staff members in India, including its back-office operation, while Merrill has about 500.
Ambit Holdings said n Monday that it had hired the five Merrill executives from a majority-owned local venture for its institutional equities and equity proprietary trading unit, including a 10-year Merrill veteran as head.

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DREAMWORKS AND PARAMOUNT HAVE A MESSY BREAKUP

For quite a while now, DreamWorks has been due for some change. Its relationship with distributor Paramount had gone from shaky, to rocky, to in dire need of a life raft. Due to this tension, it was no surprise that as its contract with Paramount ended the company looked elsewhere to produce its films. Reliance, a company based mostly out of India, is helping to fund a stand-alone production company for DreamWorks.
The surprise that came was how much Paramount seems to have wanted to sever ties, or at least how much it wanted to vindictively sever ties after DreamWorks spurned the company. While Paramount gave a statement to Yahoo News saying, "To facilitate a timely and smooth transition, Paramount has waived certain provisions from the original deal to clear the way for the DreamWorks principals and their employees to join their new company without delay," this does little to change what actually happened. No DreamWorks employees were kept by Paramount, which is not quite a mass layoff, but certainly a cause for alarm to all employees whose jobs are now in jeopardy.Also thrust into turmoil by this deal are any projects DreamWorks had been working on before the split happened. Perhaps most importantly, this includes Steven Spielberg's own planned films such as Lincoln, The Trial of the Chicago 7 and The 39 Clues. A caveat to this is that if Paramount does decide to move forward with production, it will have to pay 7.5 percent of any picture's gross to DreamWorks. It's anyone's guess whether Paramount will agree to this, but if not then it likely means the projects are dead in the water.
Original Source

Layoff numbers decline in Colorado

The number and size of mass layoffs in Colorado dropped in August from the month before, the federal Bureau of Labor Statisticsreported Tuesday.
Three companies cut jobs through mass layoffs, defined as the elimination of at least 50 jobs at a single site. That’s down from four in July.
The number of initial claims for unemployment insurance in Colorado fell to 258 from 343 during the same period.

Nationally, the number of mass layoffs reached a high of 1,772, and initial claims involved 173,955 people, with the manufacturing sector particularly hard hit. Of the four census regions, the West had the highest number of initial claims — 45,837 — because of mass layoffs in August. But most of those, or 41,149, were from the Pacific states in the West, instead of from Colorado and other mountain states.

Satyam may sack 2,500 employees ? Is this True

India's fourth largest IT firm Satyam Computer Services is likely to give pink slips to 2,500 employees. The company's share price fell 9.5 per cent to Rs 368.15 on Monday.

Satyam had a total headcount of 52,000 as of June-end. The company has already put some of its employees under performance improvement plan.

S V Krishnan, global head (Human Resources), Satyam, said, "As part of our appraisal process, we identify around 5 per cent of our associates under the performance improvement category and put them through a structured performance improvement programme.

"Our experience says that about half of this group exits the system either voluntarily or involuntarily, while the others make credible progress internally. We have concluded our appraisal process a few weeks ago."

McClatchy to cut 1,150 jobs, 10 % of work force

The McClatchy newspaper company announced its second major round of job cuts in three months Tuesday and blamed a sour advertising environment in trimming its payroll by 10 percent.

The McClatchy Co. said it expects half the 1,150 new reductions to come through voluntary buyouts and attrition and the rest through layoffs.

The company said the job cuts and other initiatives across the company would save $100 million over the next year, not including severance costs of about $20 million.

In June, McClatchy also announced a trim to its work force of about 10 percent, which meant the loss of 1,400 full-time jobs and savings of $70 million a year. Two months later, it announced a one-year pay freeze for remaining employees effective Sept. 1.

"It is painful to announce these staff reductions, but the continued restructuring of our company is necessary given the relentless economic downturn and its impact on our business," Gary Pruitt, McClatchy's chairman and chief executive, said in a statement.

He said the cuts should position McClatchy to grow as a digital company and to deliver "high-quality news and information in whatever medium our readers want to receive it."

The company said it would provide severance and continuation of benefits to affected employees.

The cutbacks already have begun as individual McClatchy newspapers offered voluntary buyouts in recent weeks. Additional reductions are to take effect over the next few months.

In Washington state, McClatchy owns The Bellingham Herald, The Olympian of Olympia, The News Tribune of Tacoma and the Tri-City Herald. In Idaho, it owns the Idaho Statesman.

"The announcement today from McClatchy was a nationwide announcement that included information that Tacoma already announced last week, but there are no specific numbers for Tacoma," said Karen Peterson, executive editor of The News Tribune of Tacoma, Wash.

The Tacoma paper is in the process of accepting voluntary buyout applications, with a deadline of Friday.

Last week, Olympian Publisher John Winn Miller said the paper is offering buyouts to 38 of the newsroom's 45 full- and part-time print and online employees. Tri-City Herald Publisher Rufus Friday has said voluntary layoff packages have been offered to about 60 of the paper's more than 200 employees. He did not immediately return a phone message for comment Tuesday.
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Silicon Valley Layoff Watch: Is eBay Next?

Out-of-work employees at Hewlett-Packard and evaporated investment banks like Lehman Brothers may soon have some company on the unemployment rolls. This week, the chatter among eBay insiders is all about the possibility of mass layoffs.

The talk was ignited Monday by an article in Barron’s, which cited a report by Wedge Partners, a small Colorado investment-research firm. Wedge suggested that eBay was preparing layoffs that could hit up to 10 percent of eBay’s 15,000 employees.

An eBay spokesman said that the company “does not comment on rumors or speculation.” But the Wedge report has the ring of truth. EBay, the leader in online auctions, has been rocked this year by greater-than-usual rancor from sellers in the wake of significant fee changes and stagnant traffic to the site. Many analysts say the San Jose, Calif., company’s third-quarter performance has so far shown little improvement.


A report last week from Jeetil Patel, a Deutsche Bank analyst, also suggested that a decrease in headcount could help offset declining profit from fee changes, flat sales and the negative impact of currency fluctuations on overseas revenue. Mr. Patel lowered his revenue estimate for eBay and said in his report that eBay’s core marketplace “continues to show deteriorating market share trends.”
Source

Oswego Wire plans to lay off more than half its workers

OSWEGO, N.Y. -- "Am I happy? No I'm not happy!" said Oswego resident Roy Villegas.



On Monday, Oswego Wire announced plans to move production of some bare wire products made in Oswego to Indiana in an effort to reduce cost. This change means the company will lay off more than half of its 93 employees by the end of the month.


The company, which is owned by Coleman Cable, will stay in operation and be left with about 40 workers.


In a statement, Executive Vice President Richard Carr said, "We believe these changes will allow Coleman Cable to control costs in these challenging economic times while at the same time allow us to focus on and improve our manufacturing practices and customer service for our valuable Oswego Wire customer base."

"I have a family and it will just be something that we have to accept due to our economy I would imagine," said Villegas.

Villegas has worked at Oswego Wire for 16 years. He was laid off on Tuesday and while he may be out of a job, he is grateful for the opportunity the company gave him.


“It wasn't the greatest job, but it was a job. I look forward to new adventures you might say," said Villegas.


The company's director of human resources says employees who have been laid off will receive pay and benefits through mid November as they look for other opportunities. But as Oswego Wire reorganizes its resources, it serves as the latest company to fall victim of rising costs and a slumping economy.
Source

DELPHI: Company to lay off 100 trades workers

Delphi Corp. is placing about 100 skilled trades workers at its Lockport plant on indefinite layoff over the next few months.

The indefinite layoffs are due to a large decline in customer volumes and the completion of building consolidations at the Lockport plant, said Claudia Piccinin, a Delphi spokeswoman. Part of the layoffs are an effect of General Motors reduction in the number of vehicles assembled. General Motors is a large customer for Delphi, Piccinin said.

Some of the layoffs started a few months ago, and others will continue over the next several months, she said. Piccinin said the company has not set a date for the workers to be called back to their jobs.

The trades workers are represented by United Auto Workers Local 686 Unit 1. Delphi’s Lockport plant has about 2,600 hourly and salaried employees.
Source

Whirlpool to lay off 700 at Fort Smith

FORT SMITH, Ark. -

Whirlpool Corp. says it will lay off another 700 workers from its factory at Fort Smith.

The company said Monday that the layoffs would be effective in November and there is no timetable for calling the workers back.

The company had more than 4,000 workers in Fort Smith before opening a plant in Mexico that also makes refrigerators. Prior to Monday's announcement, the plant had about 2,000 workers.

Infosys firing /Accenture firing

Well, it seems that big software as well as hardware giants as on firing spree. But, hang on before you jump to any conclusion. So far only Satyam Computers and HP’s news of firing its employees and giving pink slips are being confirmed. Till date there is no news from, I hope that there will not be any bad news, TCS firing| Infosys firing | HP firing | Accenture firing. Whatever news of firing and axing employees by TCS, Infosys, and Accenture are false and baseless. On the contrary there is news that Infosys is planning to hire about 1000 new people for its China project. As a matter of fact Infosys recruitment ad has also appeared in Times Ascent, dated September 17, 2008.

IBM, HP, INFOSYS, WIPRO, TCS, HCL, Satyam Firing's

Common blame for these IT FIRINGS seems to be pointing at the US Economy and a lowering consumer confidence. However, if one looks further into the firings at the IT Giants, one notices a common thread - India.

It seems consumer frustration with lack lustre Offshore IT Support is causing a shuffle in India's once booming IT Sector. I know for a fact, American Express recently axed their India Call centre. I have had nothing but problems with the off shore, particularly in India call centre's. Router companies are known for their cheap outsourcing. The most frustrating phrase I hear is "OK, so if I understand you correctly sir, you cannot..." Usually followed by something completely different than your actual problem.

Wipro Tech puts 3000 staff under scanner

NEW DELHI: Wipro Technologies has put about 4-5% of its workforce, about 2,400-3,000 employees, under the scanner for non-performance. While some would be given counselling to improve their performance, others would be asked to leave.

Wipro’s corporate vice-president (human resources) Pratik Kumar confirmed the move. “It’s a regular annual exercise. As the appraisal cycle gets over, a multi-layer review happens. Following that, people who have fallen in the lower quadrants of performance are put on watch. Some are asked to pull up and others are asked to move on,” he said.

Asked how many employees had been asked to move on, he said the company did not disclose that number, but it was “significantly lower than 2,000”. Company sources said about 1,000 employees were being asked to leave. “I can’t comment on a particular number,” Mr Kumar said, when asked to comment. The review includes all the 60,000 global IT services employees from the senior leadership team down to the person with one-year experience.

HP to slash 24,600 jobs following EDS buy

Hewlett-Packard on Monday announced plans to cut tens of thousands of jobs over the next three years as it digests its recent purchase of EDS.

The company expects to replace roughly half of these positions over the next three years to create a global workforce that has the right blend of service delivery capabilities to address the diversity of its markets and customers worldwide.

HP announced plans in May to acquire the computer services firm for $13.9 billion. The deal closed in August. The company said that, once it has finished with the cuts, it expects the moves to save $1.8 billion in costs annually. It said it does plan to reinvest in other areas.

On the accounting side, HP said it will record a $1.7 billion charge in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2008 related to the restructuring program. The company said that, of that charge, $1.4 billion will be recorded as goodwill, and $300 million will be recorded as a restructuring charge that will be included in its financial results.

The company positioned the announcement as part of an effort to "streamline" its costs. It plans to discuss the move at an analysts' meeting, set to kick off shortly.

"HP now has the broadest technology capabilities in the market to meet customer needs today and in the future," CEO Mark Hurd said in a statement. "HP has a strong track record of making acquisitions and integrating them to capture leading market positions. We will deliver on the promise of HP and EDS for our customers and shareholders." HP discussed the job cuts as part of a meeting under way for financial analysts.

Wipro lay off 2500 ( 2,400-3,000 employees, under the scanner for non-performance)

Wipro Technologies has put about 4-5 per cent of its workforce, about 2,400-3,000 employees, under the scanner for non-performance. Company sources reveal that about 1,000 employees have been asked to leave.

While some would be given counselling to improve their performance, others would be asked to leave.

Wipro’s corporate vice-president (human resources) Pratik Kumar confirmed the move. Asked how many employees had been asked to move on, he said the company did not disclose that number, but it was “significantly lower than 2,000”. “I can’t comment on a particular number,” Kumar said, when asked to comment.

“It’s a regular annual exercise. As the appraisal cycle gets over, a multi-layer review happens. Following that, people who have fallen in the lower quadrants of performance are put on watch. Some are asked to pull up and others are asked to move on,” he said.

The review includes all the 60,000 global IT services employees from the senior leadership team down to the person with one-year experience.