layoffs

Ericsson it is cutting 1,500 jobs from among its 80,000 global employees, the wireless equipment maker said Monday.

The company reported on Friday a huge downturn in fourth quarter and full-year 2009 earnings. For the quarter ended December, Ericsson saw its net earnings plummet 92 percent to 314 million million kronor ($43.4 million dollars), compared with the year-ago quarter. Sales dropped 13 percent to 58.3 billion kronor from the year-ago quarter.

For all of 2009, Ericsson's earnings were down 67 percent to 3.7 billion kronor ($512 million). Annual sales survived, though, falling only 1 … Read more

Oracle's expected $7.4 billion acquisition of Sun Microsystems will undoubtedly be followed by at least a few layoffs, but as much as half of the company's workforce?

Not a chance, says Sun, which issued an all-hands memo reassuring employees that a recent report from research outfit UBS that suggests Oracle might sack 13,800 when the deal finally closes is off the mark--and way off the mark.

"You may have seen an article published by Bloomberg, subsequently picked up by other media, that references a UBS analyst report speculating that Oracle could cut up to 50% … Read more

Nokia announced Tuesday that it will lay off about 220 employees from its R&D division in Japan, a bit more than 1 percent of the company's worldwide R&D workforce.

The layoffs are part of the company's efforts to align its global research & development operations with new products. Nokia Siemens Networks, the network equipment maker owned by Nokia and Siemens, will not be affected by the reorganization, said Nokia.

Just last week, Nokia said that it will slash 330 positions in total from its R&D units in Finland and Copenhagen as part … Read more

Nokia said Friday that a streamlining effort could result in the elimination of as many as 330 positions from its research and development staff, or about 2 percent of its global R&D workforce.

The changes will likely hit up to 230 workers in the company's Oulu site in Finland and roughly 100 at its Copenhagen site. Nokia said it plans to offer voluntary severance packages to the affected workers and to find alternative jobs for as many people as possible.

The company currently employs more than 17,000 workers in its R&D business. It has … Read more

AOL, which has already told investors that it will spend up to $200 million firing a good chunk of its staff, has now told its employees. It is looking for "up to 2,500 volunteers," CEO Tim Armstrong told his staff Thursday. That's a third of the company's payroll.

The voluntary layoff program begins December 4, a few days before the company spins off from Time Warner. If AOL doesn't get enough volunteers, it will ax people on its own.

This is lousy news for employees, who are faced with a "jump now or … Read more

Maybe it hasn't worked so well to mesh the short-video-clip culture of the Web with traditional cable news: Current Media, the edgy cable company co-founded by former Vice President Al Gore, announced Wednesday it has laid off 80 employees in conjunction with a programming shakeup.

According to a release from the company, this shift involves canceling a number of programs, including "Current Tonight," "Current Takeover" and "Current Exposed." Most of the layoffs are in conjunction with those programs.

Additionally, per Wednesday's release: "Current will be shifting away from short-form programming and … Read more

Adobe Systems expects to cut 680 full-time employees, or about 9 percent of its global workforce, as the company tries to align costs in the face of lagging sales.

The layoff, which was disclosed Tuesday in a regulatory filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, marks the second wave of job cuts in the past year. In December, the company said it would slash 600 jobs amid less-than-anticipated demand for its recently launched Creative Suite 4 series of products.

The cuts will affect only those workers who were Adobe employees before the $1.8 billion acquisition of Web analytics firm Omniture … Read more

Sprint Nextel said it will cut 2,000 to 2,500 positions in the fourth quarter in an effort to save $350 million.

The cuts will be completed by December 31.

According to a statement, Sprint will cut jobs across the company, including its wholesale unit and contractors. The company said the cuts won't impact customer service, something the Sprint has been trying to improve. Nevertheless, Sprint said call volume has decreased so it has discontinued 27 call centers.

Sprint will take a fourth quarter charge of $60 million to $80 million. The layoff news comes as Sprint will … Read more

The Seattle area is going to get another jobless jolt Thursday, with RealNetworks planning to lay off 4 percent of its workforce, sources said.

That's a small number--just about 70 people out of its 1,700-person staff--but the move comes on the heels of layoffs of another 800 employees at nearby Microsoft on Wednesday. The software giant has cut thousands of jobs over the last year, part of a move to eliminate 5,000 positions by mid-2010.

While the dismissals--which are likely to be announced to affected RealNetworks employees sometime Thursday morning by managers--will be global, both RealNetworks and … Read more