J.D. Edwards to cut 800 jobs

It took less than six weeks for new management to shake up the rest of J.D. Edwards & Co. (Nasdaq: JDEC)

After market close Monday, the vendor of enterprise resource planning software unveiled restructuring plans that include shedding 800 jobs. The announcement follows the company's warning from earlier this month, when J.D. Edwards said it would report second quarter results below Wall Street estimates.

"Today's announcement is the culmination of a lot of soul-searching, and a careful assessment of our market position," said company founder Ed McVaney, who returned as CEO and chairman last month, replacing Doug Massingill. "This was a very tough but very necessary decision. J.D. Edwards wants to be more nimble and responsive to market changes, and to empower and enable the talent we have throughout our company. ... This restructuring positions us to capture that opportunity by freeing up resources and becoming a more efficient, agile organization."

In addition to the job cuts, other cost-cutting measures include moving to an online procurement system, more use of computer training for customers and reducing offices.

Shares of J.D. Edwards fell 3/4 to 12 1/2 in Monday's regular trading, prior to the restructuring announcement.

The ERP software industry has generally been coming back slowly from a down period last year. Companies such as SAP (NYSE: SAP) have recently reported relatively slow growth, although J.D. Edwards noted its top line in the first half of the year grew 20 percent.

J.D. Edwards' full second quarter report is scheduled for release Wednesday.

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