Adobe to axe 250 jobs

It's revenue up and staff count down at Adobe this week, as the graphics specialist announced plans to lay off nine per cent of its workforce -- 250 employees in all -- just after it said its upcoming second quarter results would sneak through a smidgeon higher than it had anticipated. The company said the bulk of the redundancies would come from its overseas subsidiaries, mostly from its Edinburgh-based European HQ, acquired some years back when it bought Aldus. Essentially, the company will shift its focus onto Web sales, pretty much of all of which can be fulfilled from the US and small, localised distribution centres. In addition to the trend of buyers increasingly choosing to buy direct via the Web, Adobe's decision was also based on the need to continue cutting costs which had grown high on the back of its earlier success. The company said it expects to take a $15 million hit to cover the lay-offs, but overall the action should lead to a $25 million saving. Some of the job cuts will also come from its printing technology R&D efforts which have become less cost-effective as PostScript licensing revenues have fallen thanks to ever-cheaper laser printers. Adobe's Q2 revenue should now hit $246 million, up from an anticipated $245 million, the company said. Final figures are due within the next couple of weeks. ®