News
Intel Lowers Revenue Expectations, Slashes Workforce
- By Scott Bekker
- 03/09/2001
Intel Corp. announced
its intentions to slash its workforce by 5,000 employees and also lowered
earnings expectations for the first quarter of 2001 on Thursday, becoming the
latest company to fall victim to the slowdown in the U.S. economy.
Attributing its problems to the PC slowdown that has also
spread to its communications, server, and networking divisions, Intel said it
expects revenue for the first fiscal quarter to be down 25 percent from fourth
quarter 2000 revenue of $8.7 billion. Previously, Intel had predicted that
first quarter revenue would be down 15 percent.
The chip giant expects gross margin percentage for the first
quarter to be 51 percent, down from the previous expectation of 58 percent. In
a cost cutting move, Intel also said Research and Development expenditures will
be cut by 15 percent from the prior quarter’s total.
The reduction in the workforce will take place over the next
nine months, Intel said. In cutting its workforce, Intel is following suit of
technology giants such as Nortel Networks and Dell that have announced layoffs
in the last few weeks. – Jim Martin
About the Author
Scott Bekker is editor in chief of Redmond Channel Partner magazine.