layoffs

Microsoft cuts 800 more jobs

Microsoft said on Wednesday that it is notifying approximately 800 workers that their jobs are being eliminated as the software giant completes the layoffs it announced earlier this year.

In January, Microsoft said it would cut approximately 5,000 positions before the end of the next fiscal year, which ends in June. With the latest cuts, Microsoft said it has essentially completed those layoffs. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said in May that it was mostly, but not entirely, done with the job eliminations.

Actually, though, the latest cuts will push Microsoft past that 5,000 number. Once these cuts are … Read more

Novell cuts 3 percent of its workforce, plus benefits

Linux jobs in the United States are booming, up 6 percent since January, according to data from Dice.com. This will come as small consolation to Novell employees, however, which weathered another round of layoffs at the Waltham, Mass.-based company.

According to several sources within the company, and confirmed by Novell's public-relations director, Ian Bruce, Novell last week laid off 100 to 130 people of its roughly 3,900 global employees.

While my sources indicated that the Workgroup division was particularly hard-hit, Bruce told me that the cuts came "across the company, both geographically and productwise."… Read more

Nokia Siemens eyeing cost cuts, layoffs

Damaged by lower sales, huge operating losses, and a falling market share, Nokia Siemens Networks is pinning its hopes on a major reorganization.

The network equipment maker, jointly owned by Nokia and Siemens, announced Tuesday that it will lay off 5,700 employees and cut its five business units to three as part of a plan to slash expenses by 500 million euros ($740 million) by the end of 2011.

The layoffs will represent around 7 percent to 9 percent of the company's 64,000 global employees and is likely to be felt across all countries in which Nokia … Read more

Sun to lay off another 3,000 employees

Sun Microsystems plans to cut as many as 3,000 jobs, or about 10 percent of its global workforce, during the next year as it prepares for Oracle's takeover of the company.

The cuts, revealed on Tuesday in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, represent the second major round of layoffs in a year for the server maker. Sun announced restructuring plans last November to cut up to 6,000 jobs this year, or 18 percent of its global workforce.

Those cuts were disclosed before Oracle announced its $7.4 billion bid for Sun in … Read more

Dell closing N.C. manufacturing plant

Dell is closing its desktop PC manufacturing plant in Winston-Salem, N.C.

The cost-cutting move will ax 905 jobs, with 600 workers set to be laid off in November and the rest in January, Dell said Wednesday.

"This is a difficult decision, especially for our North Carolina colleagues, but a necessary one for Dell customers and our company," Frank Miller, vice president of Dell's Public Business Unit Supply Chain, said in a statement.

Dell had announced some layoffs at the North Carolina plant in March but gave no indication that the plant itself might be in danger … Read more

RealNetworks lays off 9 percent in music division

This post was updated at 1:40 p.m. PDT with RealNetworks' correction of the percentage of employees laid off.

Entertainment software company Real Networks laid off 12 employees within its music division or about 9 percent of the division staff, the company said Thursday.

The cuts come a week after RealNetworks reported marked decreases in the number of subscribers at its Rhapsody music subscription and online radio units.

Rhapsody, which is partly owned by Viacom's MTV Networks, lost 50,000 of its 800,000 subscribers over the past three months, RealNetworks said last week in its second-quarter earnings … Read more

Cisco cuts another 600-plus jobs

Another round of employees at Cisco Systems reportedly got pink slips Thursday, as the company laid off several hundred employees as part of its plan to cut costs and realign its business.

The Wall Street Journal reported Friday that between 600 and 700 Cisco employees were laid off at the company's headquarters in San Jose, Calif. The company also cut jobs at branch offices in other parts of the U.S. The Wall Street Journal cited sources close to the company.

A spokesman for the company told the Wall Street Journal that Cisco was "doing everything possible to … Read more

MySpace slashing two-thirds of international staff

Social-networking giant MySpace is cutting 300 international jobs--two-thirds of its workforce outside the United States.

The company, which already announced a 30 percent layoff in the States last week, said on Tuesday that it will reduce its overseas staff from 450 to 150 employees and close at least four foreign offices. MySpace also announced proposed restructuring that will narrow its international focus to a "smaller number of territories."

"As we conducted our review of the company, it was clear that internationally, just as in the U.S., MySpace's staffing had become too big and cumbersome to … Read more

Tech layoffs: The scorecard

With the overall economy slumping, the tech industry is taking its fair share of hits. We'll keep updating the chart below as news of company changes comes in. See our complete coverage of how the tech sector is faring here: Tracking the tech downturn.

Know of a layoff not listed here? Let us know on this form or e-mail us.

MySpace slashes head count by 30 percent

Amid economic woes, stagnant growth, and a management shakeup, onetime social-networking pioneer MySpace has announced that it has cut its head count by slightly under 30 percent in what the company calls a "return to start-up culture." Well, that's a nice way to put it.

Reports had circulated that MySpace would be laying off nearly half its employees in a move that had delayed its relocation to a bigger office space in the Los Angeles area. With the layoffs, MySpace's full-time U.S. employee roster will be down to 1,000 people--which means somewhere just south … Read more