Jobs blow at Seagate

In the wake of poor sales and a viscous HDD price war, Seagate has announced that ten per cent of its worldwide workforce is to about to bite the bullet. The 8000 or so jobs will be cut over the next nine months and the disk drive vendor hopes the action will save it around $150 million a year. The company will take a $200 million hit in its current quarter to cover the restructuring. Back in June, Seagate added it name to the increasing roll call of disk makers struggling to make ends meet. Last month, Seagate was accused by rival Quantum of cutting its prices to force competitors out of the market. Most of the jobs to be cut will come from factories in the Asia-Pacific region, although the US and Europe won't escape the axe. Seagate says it is building a smaller, more technically aware workforce for the future, buy then who isn't? This is not the first major round of lay-offs to hit the Seagate workforce. Last year, 10,000 jobs went to the wall. The company continues to blame an unexpected fall off in demand and general downward pressure on prices for its troubles. ®