Intel Plans Fresh Round of Layoffs, Other Cost Cuts (oregonlive.com) 33
Intel plans a fresh wave of layoffs in the wake of a steep decline in revenue over the last six months. The chipmaker, Oregon's largest corporate employer, blames a weak global economy. From a report: "We are focused on identifying cost reductions and efficiency gains through multiple initiatives, including some business and function-specific workforce reductions in areas across the company," Intel said in a written statement. "These are difficult decisions, and we are committed to treating impacted employees with dignity and respect," Intel said.
Dylan Patel with the technology research firm SemiAnalysis first reported the pending cuts over the weekend. Intel didn't say what else it's cutting, in what areas, or how these layoffs compare to a prior round of job cuts that ended last winter. Intel laid off more than 500 employees in California in job cuts announced last fall, according to filings there with state workforce agencies. It laid off employees in Oregon, too, but didn't make a similar filing here, suggesting that the layoffs represented a smaller percentage of the company's local workforce. Intel employs more than 22,000 at its Washington County campuses.
Dylan Patel with the technology research firm SemiAnalysis first reported the pending cuts over the weekend. Intel didn't say what else it's cutting, in what areas, or how these layoffs compare to a prior round of job cuts that ended last winter. Intel laid off more than 500 employees in California in job cuts announced last fall, according to filings there with state workforce agencies. It laid off employees in Oregon, too, but didn't make a similar filing here, suggesting that the layoffs represented a smaller percentage of the company's local workforce. Intel employs more than 22,000 at its Washington County campuses.
cutting their way to innovation? (Score:5, Insightful)
Wasn't it just a month ago that Intel was touting how they were going to out innovate AMD and other competitors to make themselves a market leader etc...
And, now here we are seeing Intel act like any other matured business and forsaking investment in favor of cutting costs
jmo, but succumbing to MBA-led cost cutting exercises is _not_ how companies create new products, or leap frog their competitors into new markets
This just makes Intel look as dead as they likely are
Re:cutting their way to innovation? (Score:5, Insightful)
Innovation is difficult when you spend all your reserves on stock buybacks.
https://www.reuters.com/busine... [reuters.com]
https://ycharts.com/companies/... [ycharts.com]
Re: cutting their way to innovation? (Score:2)
The fed kept trying to raise rates and the duck kept yelling the economy is great lower rates even more.
Re:cutting their way to innovation? (Score:4, Insightful)
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If I had any investment in IBM left, this would be the moment to sell.
IBM, like any stocks in that league, aren't something you buy for short term profits, it's a long running investment meant to park your money in a safe haven that can weather any economic storm. IBM is one of those companies that existed for decades and that will (probably) still exist in decades. As an investor, you deal with them not being the kind of company that promises you insane profits, because that's not why you hold them.
If IBM
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IBM has been dying for about as long as I've been living.
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Huge, heavy oil tankers keep moving forward a LONG time after the engine stops.
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None of these trades actually put money into Intel as a company, so why should Intel be "returning" money to stockholders when Intel is actually in decline?
Current shareholders are the owners of Intel. Who cares how they got those shares, they still deserve their share of the profits of the company. Right now they are making about 1.6% of their share's value in dividends each year, which is basically the average for the S&P 500.
It baffles me though how the average dividend yield of these companies are so low. It takes the average S&P 500 company 60 years to pay out its stock's value in dividend payments. I find it hard to believe that the average S
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jmo, but succumbing to MBA-led cost cutting exercises is _not_ how companies create new products, or leap frog their competitors into new markets
This just makes Intel look as dead as they likely are
Ah, but let's reinforce this behavior year after year after year by rewarding MBAs with employment that validates that "education".
I'd love a multi-decade long study on that particular career field to determine if it's actually more financially ethical than managing a cartel dog fighting ring. Or has proven to be financially beneficial in the long run for anyone other than those padding executive bonuses.
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Funny how all these cuts are happening at the same time. Almost as though the investor class has recognized that capitalism requires a line of hungry SOBs behind you to accept a lower wage and that line doesn't create itself.
Class solidarity is a thing and folks who can afford good education (also folks that read books, that helps) understand this well.
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The unfortunate part is that CEO Pat Gels
Re:cutting their way to innovation? (Score:4, Interesting)
The unfortunate part is that CEO Pat Gelsinger is an experienced design engineer who was directly involved with many of Intel's successful products in the 80's. He was supposed to rid Intel of the MBA mindset and steer the company back onto a course of technical excellence.
Instead, Intel has doubled down on the "raise the stock price above all else" philosophy. Sometimes the job changes the person more than the person changes the job.
I don't blame Gelsinger. The system he operates in strongly motivates him to act in the interest of short-term stock appreciation. That is, he is strongly motivated to cut short-term operating costs (e.g., layoffs) because revenue tends to exhibit short-term hysteresis, so the quarterly reports look good. That's also why stock buybacks look so good, as they boost short-term numbers while doing nothing for future growth.
The way to change Gelsinger and other CEOs is to make their compensation based on longer-term corporate performance. Give him hundreds of millions based on Intel revenue and market share 3-5 years in the future, and give him almost nothing in the next 1-2 years. Of course, no corporation works that way, because no CEO wants that challenge and risk. They want the easy money now, even though that incentivizes them to wreck the company in the long term.
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LOL that's funny. If there's one thing that is abundantly clear by now: big companies CAN'T FUCKING INNOVATE!
The best they can do is to find a small company doing what they want to do and then buy it. But the very culture and structure of a large corporation makes any real innovation untenable.
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It's a cycle (Score:4, Interesting)
It's a technique for maximizing labor value pioneered by MBAs. I only just recently heard about it. When they talk about it they use all sorts of euphemisms, so unless you're knee deep in MBA Jargon you wouldn't have heard of it (I certainly hadn't).
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Links? Id like to read more about this, havent heard of it before.
There's no competition anymore (Score:2)
Like Carlan said, it's a Big Club and you ain't in it.
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Yes, long term employees tend to get paid in the upper third of the salary band for their position.
This technique pushes the high earners out and replaces them with people in the lower third of their pay band.
It is a huge win for the companies, but can hamstring people in the later stages of their careers and send them into retirement lacking funds and un-prepared
Dell Scaling Back Remote Work (Score:5, Interesting)
And today Dell announced that they want most employees to return to the office three days a week. I can't help but wonder if the objective is to reduce staff. It's also possible they just picked the timing for when they figured the fewest employees would feel safe jumping ship, with announcements like the Intel layoffs discouraging people from leaving.
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It would be interesting to go back over the past 12-18 months and see whether all the heads of these major tech organizations were all at some specific conference / retreat at the same time.
I'm not saying they're colluding and coordinating these layoffs in an attempt to claw back power from their workers... but I'm certainly thinking it loudly.
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Nah, it must be the conspiracy you just made up.
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Shortsighted (Score:5, Insightful)
One thing that these companies collectively don't get is that every time they fire a worker, they are also firing a customer.
Intel has a better business model now (Score:2)