SanDisk layoffs appear to be in the works
In the wake of a big loss posted this week by SanDisk, layoffs appear to be in the offing.
On Monday, SanDisk said in prepared remarks that as part of its efforts to reduce operating expenses, "actions will be implemented in the current quarter" and will include "canceling or exiting a number of products and marketing activities, and will result in employee reduction in R&D, Sales & Marketing, G&A, and Operations."
And on Monday during SanDisk's third-quarter earnings conference call, CFO Judy Bruner spoke about more restructuring to come. In response to a question about operating expenditures, she said: "We're taking actions that we believe are quite aggressive and will cause us to make some pretty tough choices in the business." She later added: "We have not finalized yet our restructuring actions."
On Tuesday, Samsung published a letter withdrawing its $5.8 billion offer to buy SanDisk at $26 per share, citing the Milpitas, Calif.-based flash memory company's financial straits. (Although this doesn't necessarily mean that Samsung is abandoning its effort to buy SanDisk.)
Samsung, among other things, pointed to SanDisk's $250 million operating loss in the third quarter and the "considerable increase" in SanDisk's "risk profile."
But that wasn't all. In its letter, Samsung also mentioned "major job losses across your organization." (Full Samsung letter here.)
SanDisk shares were down 32 percent in trading at 12:20 p.m. PDT, to one of the lowest levels in years.
Brooke Crothers has served as an editor at large at CNET News, an editor at Dow Jones' Asian Wall Street Journal Weekly, and a senior editor at InfoWorld. His CNET blog covers chip technology and computer systems, and how they define the computing experience. He also contributes to The New York Times' Bits and Technology sections. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure. Follow Brooke on Twitter @mbrookec. 
