Two high-technology companies Monday announced layoffs totaling nearly 9,000 workers.
Compaq Computer Corp. said it will fire 5,000 workers and close eight facilities around the world in an effort to meld Compaq’s businesses with those of recently acquired Digital Equipment Corp.
And Rockwell International Corp., in a move to boost its competitiveness, launched a broad restructuring of its business, slashing 3,800 jobs and spinning off its troubled semiconductor business.
Houston-based Compaq, the nation’s top maker of personal computers, expects to cut a total of 17,000 jobs, reducing the combined workforce 20 percent, to 67,000, in the next 12 months. The company said this month it plans charges of $5.4 billion for the $9.6 billion Digital acquisition plus unspecified charges for a restructuring.
Compaq needs to integrate Digital’s services business and high-performance computers and cut costs quickly while recovering from a glut of PCs that reduced earnings to break-even for the first and second quarters. Compaq said Monday it will close plants in North America, Asia, Europe and Latin America.
Meanwhile, Monday’s announcement by Costa Mesa, Calif.-based Rockwell International follows two other major strategic shifts at the company in the last two years. In August 1996, the company sold its defense and aerospace operations. Last year, it spun off its automotive-parts operations.
Rockwell said its initiatives will reduce third-quarter earnings by $625 million. It expects third-quarter earnings for continuing businesses to be 45 cents per share, approximately 20 percent below 1997’s third-quarter results of 56 cents.
Rockwell said 3,000 of the 3,800 layoffs will come from the automation division. It did not indicate where the other 800 layoffs will come from.
