Symantec to Layoff 800
Or as John Thompson, CEO puts it, 4.5%. Despite making a profit and despite coming in a few million bucks short of estimates, John Thompson put a freeze on hiring, buying, and is cutting headcount by approximately 800 jobs. With the pink slips, these former employees will also get an .MP3 file of the corporate theme song:
Symantec Revolution Baby!
From TechTraderDaily here:
Speaking on the company’s post-earnings conference call, Symantec (SYMC) CEO John Thompson said the company is planning a significant reduction in force. Thompson didn’t provide a specific number of layoffs, instead indicating that the company plans to cut its “head count budget” by 4.5%.
Asked to elaborate, a company spokesman declined to provide a specific number on the planned head cuts; but given that the company has close to 18,000 employees, the number will almost certainly be substantial. A cut of 4.5% would imply a loss of about 800 jobs, although again, that is not quite what they described. If they cut from the bottom – employees with less than average impact on the head-count budget – the number could be higher. Layoff higher-paid execs, and the number of job losses could be lower.
Its nice to see a Barack Obama fan such as John Thompson throwing people out into the streets. Bold leadership like this will certainly give Barack Obama something to point at as proof that the economy is collapsing. Real change and hope Symantec shareholders “can believe in” would be to take MarketWatch’s advice and recommend that Thompson hit the road with those fired employees.
Well if he were to leave it would be to take up a post in Obamas Govt……..
The shareholders have a say in whether or not he keeps his position. But like Obama, he has wowed everyone with soothing words and big promises.
Wow. Did John Thompson in an all-hands meeting on Halloween fire 4.5% of his employees and blame it on the Bush administration? 4 days before the election??
Salem said that only symantec reported being impacted by the economy. Is this stunt a way to influence symantec workers to vote for obama?
My feeling is the weak economy gave Symantec the ability to blow up specific lines of business that it was felt had reached enough maturity to move into the general field sales population and they do not need a Specialist Sales Organization to support, thus not having to double compensate for those solutions.