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Thursday December 10, 11:00 pm Eastern Time
MCI WorldCom to lay off 2,000 workers
NEW YORK, Dec 10 (Reuters) - MCI WorldCom Inc., the No. 2 U.S. long distance phone company, on Friday will lay off 2,000 workers or almost 3 percent of its workforce in dozens of locations across the country, sources familiar with the company said on Thursday.
The job cuts come as part of the newly merged company's plan to cut $2.5 billion in expenses in 1999.
MCI WorldCom declined to comment. The company said earlier on Thursday it was conducting a full review of its newly combined operations to identify areas to reduce expenses. Any comments on a reduction of the 77,000-person workforce would be premature, a company spokeswoman said.
The cuts will affect dozens of locations nationally, with Cary, North Carolina, Richardson, Texas, and Tulsa, Oklahoma, seeing the biggest losses at almost 300 workers each, sources said. No facilities will be closed.
The layoffs primarily affect engineers and other workers in network operations and information technology, sources said.
MCI WorldCom was created in September through Jackson, Mississippi-based WorldCom Inc.'s $40 billion acquisition of MCI Communications Corp.
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