3Com cans 3,000 workers

Red ink and bloodletting at networking firm

By John Leyden • Get more from this author

Posted in Business, 8th May 2001 11:27 GMT

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Struggling networking equipment maker 3Com has announced the loss of a further 3,000 jobs as part of a plan to return its business to profitability.

Both full time workers and contractors throughout 3Com will be affected by the cuts which will result in it shedding 30 per cent of its workforce. The reduction in jobs will occur over several quarters and take 3Com down to 7,000 workers.

The latest round of job cuts follow the 1,200 staff cull just three months ago.

The redundancies are part of a plan by 3Com to reorganise its business and and try and make annual savings of $1 billion.

3Com plans to achieve these savings by making cost reductions in four areas: employment, discretionary costs, product costs and savings in plant, property and equipment.

After the reorganisation 3Com said it will concentrate on providing networking gear for medium sized businesses, infrastructure kit for service providers and access products for Gigabit Ethernet and wireless networks.

3Com has failed to make a profit since it spun off its Palm handheld computing division last year. In March, it closed its fledgling Internet appliance business, dropping support for a Web browsing device called Audrey and its Kerbango Internet radio.

News of the discontinuation of the products came when 3Com reported total revenues for its last quarter of $629.6 million, down 18 per cent on the $766.7 million it reported in its previous quarter.

This fall in revenues resulted in 3Com recording a pro forma net loss for its third quarter of $122.8 million. ®