mation to lay off about 140 in Minnesota
Terry Fiedler
Star Tribune
Published Jan 11 2002
Imation Corp. told about 140 Minnesota employees that they
will be laid off as part of restructuring related to sale of the
company's color-proofing and color-software business.
Imation spokesman Brad Allen said Thursday the Minnesota
jobs are mainly administrative positions in the company's
Oakdale headquarters that are no longer needed because of the
divestiture of color proofing, which represented about 25
percent of Imation's $1.2 billion in 2000 sales. The job cuts will
occur over several months, he said.
The 140 layoffs are among 500 planned worldwide as part of
the company's restructuring. Another 500 people, including
about 200 in Minnesota, are leaving Imation as part of the $50
million sale of its color-proofing and color-software business
to Connecticut-based Kodak Polychrome Graphics.
Prior to the moves, Imation employed about 4,100 people
worldwide, about 1,500 in Minnesota. When spun off from 3M
Co. in 1996, Imation employed nearly 10,000 people in a
variety of film and data-storage businesses.
The deal with Kodak Polychrome was announced in October
and completed Dec. 31.
On Thursday, Imation announced that it would take a
fourth-quarter pre-tax charge of $60 million to $65 million
for the restructuring, with $37 million of that amount in cash
costs mainly for severance payments. The remaining non-cash
charges are mainly for the write-off of various assets.
"Through these difficult but necessary actions, we look to
significantly increase value by focusing our resources on the
multibillion-dollar data storage industry," Imation CEO Bill
Monahan said.
The company said it expects to meet or exceed its previous
estimate of $10 million to $13 million in fourth-quarter
operating income and $48 million to $51 million in operating
income for the year, excluding restructuring-related charges.
Imation also noted that preliminary results for the fourth
quarter show that revenue in the company's data-storage and
information-management segment will be up 10 percent over
a year ago, finishing the year with its strongest quarterly
performance in two years.
Imation will release its full fourth-quarter results Jan. 29.
-- Terry Fiedler is at tfiedler@startribune.com .
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