re: Tough Times
>> Siemens Cuts Jobs, Closes Plants
Kristy Bassuener
October 15, 2001
Wireless Week
Germany's Siemens AG announced a new restructuring program, resulting in staff cuts and the closure of several production facilities. Under the plan, Siemens' Information & Communications Networks Group will cut an additional 5,000 jobs and slash in half the number of its production facilities worldwide. The move will nearly double ICN's 5,500 job cuts already announced this year.
''With these first steps in our [profit and cash turnaround] program, we have paved the way for our turnaround,'' said Thomas Gastwindt, president of ICN. ''We have launched a program of cost cutting and profit improvement with a target of 2 billion euros ($1.8 billion) in savings and positive earnings effects. We will achieve this by focusing on our customers and our product offerings as well as by concentrating on our traditional strengths.''
Another 2,000 layoffs are imminent for workers in Siemens' Information & Communications Mobile unit, the firm said. The new cuts bring the division's total layoffs for 2001 to more than 4,500.
This summer, Siemens cut Roland Koch, head of the Information and Communication Networks division, after the company posted a fiscal third-quarter loss of $428 million. Koch's division contributed to most of the unexpected loss, according to the company's report.
Separately, Siemens today said that its mobile phone division would begin building handsets with SAP AG's mySAP Product Lifecycle Management. The system will help streamline product development by decreasing design-to-development time, the company said. <<
>> Siemens Says It Will Cut 5,000 Jobs
October 15, 2001
AP
Siemens AG said Monday it would cut 5,000 more jobs by the end of next year at its fixed-line telecommunications division, and close half of the division's production facilities.
The Information and Communication Networks division has already been hit with 5,500 cuts this year, part of more than 10,000 across the entire company. The combined 15,000 cuts represent 3.3 percent of the company's overall work force.
The company statement said 2,000 of the latest jobs lost would be in Germany but did not say where the remaining 3,000 cuts would come or where plants would be closed. Munich-based Siemens makes products ranging from light bulbs to power plants, and employs 460,000 people worldwide.
``We have launched a program of cost cutting and profit improvement with a target of 2 billion euros ($1.8 billion) in savings and positive earnings effects,'' Thomas Ganswindt, president of ICN, said in a statement. ``We will achieve this by focusing on our customers and our product offerings as well as by concentrating on our traditional strengths,'' he said.
The division makes switching systems and other telecommunications infrastructure equipment. In the second quarter, Siemens posted a loss of $435 million, excluding one-time gains and charges. That prompted chief executive Heinrich von Pierer to cut his forecast for earnings this year and say the company would soon roll out cost-cutting plans.
Siemens' fixed-line unit and mobile telecom unit lost a combined total of $979 million in the second quarter. <<
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