Storage giant EMC said today that it will “rebalance” its work force to the tune of 1,000 positions even as it revealed it will beat its own expectations for the fourth quarter.

In a somewhat opaque statement, said that on December 30 it approved a plan which would result in “increased focus on new product development and the company’s ability to focus on new product development and the company’s ability to target, reach and support more customers around the globe.”

This will affect around 1,000 positions the firm says. Does that mean EMC supreme Joe Tucci is hanging up the “Hiring” sign? Er, not quite. Read on and the statement says it will be taking a cash charge of around $80m to cover the cost of employee separation benefits.

This at the same time it announced preliminary fourth quarter revs of $2.7bn to $2.71bn, with earnings per share, excluding items such as the worker rebalancing charge, coming in at $0.17, which is at the top end of its projections. Full year revs will be $9.65bn to $9.66bn.®