People may ask why the concern about personal data half a world away. But aggregate facts can be complied from large amounts of individual data, including our weak and strong points as a nation.
Posted on 01/06/2006 11:53:14 PM PST by nickcarraway
EMC Corp. said Friday it plans to eliminate 1,000 positions but added that it will see a net gain in total employment by year's end as the company moves to emphasize data services and software amid pressure to cut costs in the data storage hardware business.
EMC, whose shares fell about 2 percent Friday, announced the cuts affecting about 4 percent of its work force as it raised its fourth-quarter revenue estimate. The company also said a total $269 million in charges from the job moves and other expenses will reduce its quarterly and full-year 2005 earnings, to be announced Jan. 24.
EMC said it plans to eliminate redundant functions and emphasize high-growth business areas after recent acquisitions.
Although Hopkinton-based EMC has delivered nine straight quarters of double-digit revenue growth and expects to see a 10th from last year's fourth quarter, the company's stock price has remained flat as storage hardware has become an increasingly lower-cost commodity.
In response, EMC has recently bought data services and software companies, including deals for VMware, Dantz, Documentum, Legato, Rainfinity and a $275 million deal to buy Captiva Software Corp. that closed Dec. 30.
More diversified rivals in the data storage niche also have ordered recent cuts, including 14,500 job reductions announced last summer at Hewlett-Packard Co. and a similar number posted last spring by International Business Machines Corp., primarily affecting jobs in Europe.
While reasons for cuts vary from company to company, all face increasing pressures to reduce costs, said Mark Stahlman, an analyst at Caris & Co.
"This is what all of the major IT (information technology) suppliers have been going through," said "There's a geographic shift in jobs to Asia going on, and there's also a shift among the various product lines.
"These are increasingly lean companies that are organized to deliver returns to investors. I think EMC is doing the right thing."
EMC's systems are used by banks, airlines, Internet service providers, retailers, governments and others to store massive amounts of data.
EMC said it will record an $80 million charge from employee separation benefit costs, and will take two other fourth-quarter charges: $175 million from tax expenses tied to its repatriation of $3 billion in overseas earnings, and $14 million from its acquisition of Captiva.
EMC expects fourth-quarter revenue ranging from $2.70 billion to $2.71 billion, up from its previous forecast of $2.67 billion to $2.69 billion.
Including the $269 million in charges, EMC expects to report fourth quarter net income of 6 cents per share, compared with 13 cents per share in the same quarter a year ago. Excluding the charges, EMC expects to earn 17 cents per share, at the high end of its previously expected range of 16 cents to 17 cents per share.
Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial expect a per-share profit of 17 cents, excluding charges, on $2.69 billion in sales.
EMC said the work force plan "will result in increased focus on new product development and the company's ability to target, reach and support more customers around the globe."
EMC spokesman Greg Eden said job cuts will be spread across geographic areas and business units. He declined to elaborate.
The company expects to have more employees by the end of 2006 that it does now. Eden declined to offer specific numbers, saying more details would be released Jan. 24.
At the end of last year's third quarter, the company had 25,200 employees - figures that do not include 400 workers EMC gained through the Captiva acquisition.
The cuts, Eden said, "will be done through normal attrition and performance management, by identifying overlapping and redundant efforts, and ensuring we have the right skill sets to align with our business priorities and our market opportunities."
EMC shares fell 25 cents, or 1.8 percent, to close at $13.73 Friday on the New York Stock Exchange.
Confidentional and personal data of Americans will be very safe in India, China and Pakistan.
I knew this whole article was just a cover for more outsourcing of American jobs. Good luck to EMC with all the lost money coming with failed projects.
Nice tagline Jefferson quote. I haven't seen that one before.
(/sarc)
People may ask why the concern about personal data half a world away. But aggregate facts can be complied from large amounts of individual data, including our weak and strong points as a nation.
The company I work for is a huge EMC customer. They employ a lot of US based Asians already. It's like moving across the street for them.
And why is this in chat? It belongs in News/Activism.
The company that I worked for in 2001 designed fan trays for EMC servers and others. EMC was one of the strongest buyers of our stuff.
They went to GE for most of 2001, and we lost a lot of work, and then all those people went to China for their sheetmetal work.
Not all of it, but EBM lost a lot of work. The tolerances China held doing work was phenominal, they either hand picked their pieces by making 100 to fill an order of 50 or they were supermen with a press brake.
We were crushed when we lost a 500 piece order from EMC.
EMC sells the hardware and software to whoever buys it. If the company is in the US, and their data center is in the US, then the data will be physically located in the US. Of course, as we've seen in the past, that doesn't mean the data's secure.
Mark
Nevermind that the BLS statistics put the job growth in hotel maids, bartenders, and nursing home bed pan changes or the jobs you'd rather not have your children aspire to.
Trouble is, I wonder what kind of power, economic and military, a country of bedpan changers is going to be? What are we going to do when the Chinese landing craft are hitting the beaches, send our population of nursing home orderlies out to throw their bedpans at the Chinese armor?
What, are you two looking to start a riot? The kneepad globalist free traitors aren't going to take too kindly to your remarks. LOL! Blackbird.
its going to be worse then that. let's see how many wepaons we are able to make, when th semiconductor industry is lost to china and the pacific rim. i guess we can suit up a bunch of blue vested wal mart workers to be our army of the future, we can draft some Starbucks barristas to shoot frothed milk at the enemy.
That's OK, I don't like either of them, nor have they influenced the thinking of anybody here.
Amazing how these companies do well till they go public on the market. Then it's like vultures circling about fresh kill.
They cherry pick the tighest tolerance pieces during qualification then once the volume POs get cut, Katie bar the door. Ethics are non existent. Sun Tzu 1 - West 0.
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