Unisys to Hire 6,500 to Expand Its Services Business (Update2)
Unisys to Hire 6,500 to Expand Its Services Business (Update2) (Adds Unisys ranking among service companies in 2nd paragraph.)
Blue Bell, Pennsylvania, Dec. 21 (Bloomberg) -- Unisys Corp., which gets two-thirds of its revenue from running other companies' computer systems, said it will hire about 6,500 people next year to expand its workforce by 10 percent.
Blue Bell, Pennsylvania-based Unisys, the world's ninth- largest computer-services provider, now has about 33,000 workers, though about 10 percent leave the company each year. Unisys, which also makes large computers, said most of the new workers will maintain and install computer networks for businesses.
Unisys Chairman and Chief Executive Lawrence Weinbach plans to increase to 80 percent the portion of the company's annual revenue coming from computer services by 2001. Unisys fired 11,900 employees in 1994 and 1995 amid mounting losses and a slowdown in mainframe computer sales. ''The company wants to change from a restructuring story to a growth story,'' said Jim Corridore, an analyst at Standard & Poor's Equity Group.
Unisys rose to 13/16 to a record 33 7/8. The stock's almost tripled since last December, when it traded at 11 1/2. Unisys is the seventh-best performing stock in Standard & Poor's 500 Index for 1998.
Unisys third-quarter profit rose 88 percent to $95.6 million, or 26 cents a share, largely due to growth in the company's services business. Unisys reported an operating profit of $27 million for its business of installing computer systems, compared to an operating loss of $10 million a year earlier. ''They've done an amazing job of restoring the balance sheet and regaining the confidence of Wall Street,'' said Corridore, who rates Unisys ''accumulate. |
