Seagate Technology, the largest manufacturer of computer hard-disk drives, announced that it will lay off about half the employees of recently acquired rival Maxtor.
According to Reuters, about 6,000 jobs will be cut, mostly in Europe and the United States. In a press release, Seagate stated that the vast majority of Maxtor employees who will be offered positions with the combined company now work in its Asia-Pacific manufacturing operations.
Slightly more than 2,500 Seagate employees work in Silicon Valley, where the company is headquartered, reported the San Francisco Chronicle; after the layoffs, the combined company’s worldwide workforce will reportedly total about 55,000.
Seagate announced the acquisition late last year, the Chronicle added; shareholders of both companies approved the roughly $1.9 billion stock swap last week.
Meanwhile, Sun Microsystems chief financial officer Michael Lehman told attendees at technology conference in San Francisco on Monday that his company plans to announce job cuts by the end of July, according to the San Jose Mercury News.
“We are now ready to resize the company,” Lehman reportedly stated. Without being more specific, he affirmed that the number in question would be less than the “outlier” estimate of 10,000 suggested by an industry analyst, the Mercury News reported.
“We are seriously looking at different ways to bring Sun back to profitability,” Karen Kahn, vice president of communications, reportedly stated. “Layoffs are one way we can restructure, in addition to real-estate consolidation.” Kahn and other Sun executives would not confirm any plan to cut jobs, the publication added.