Sun Microsystems has decided that it will reduce its workforce by 3,000 jobs, or 10 percent of all its employees, because of several delays in its acquisition by Oracle Corp. Even after Oracle completes the acquisition of Sun, though, the company, which has been struggling with declining revenues, expects even more job reductions to occur.
The acquisition of Sun by Oracle was expected to close by the summer, but the deal has hit a snag in the form of European regulators that have been unwilling to approve the merger over fears that the new colossal company would snuff out competition. Sun’s …read more

In 2009, Verizon has cut 8,000 jobs. On Monday, Verizon announced that another 8,000 job cuts before the beginning of 2010. The elimination of employees was apparently a reaction to a dip in second quarter profits.
Last year, Verizon had a second quarter profit of about $1.9 billion. The 2009 second quarter brought upon a profit of about $1.5 billion — or a drop of about $400 million.
The good news for Verizon is that revenue was up. This year’s second quarter revenue was $26.9 billion. In 2008, that number was $24.1 billion.
Despite the good revenue news, investors weren’t too thrilled as …read more

A spokesperson for AOL has revealed that the internet company could soon be facing a slew of job cuts after a review of the company’s finances. The news came at a companywide meeting from AOL’s CEO Tim Armstrong, who warned employees to be prepared for the worst pending AOL’s financial evaluation. 
 
Armstrong’s comments point to problems within the company, essentially underlining the AOL’s needs to cut costs as the economic crisis continues to take its toll on businesses around the world. The company’s spokesperson did not reveal exactly how many jobs were in danger.
 
AOL is a subsidiary of Time Warner Inc. …read more

Despite signs of improvement in the economy, unemployment numbers continue to soar according to the latest report from payroll firm ADP. This report indicates that in the month of May, 532,000 workers were cut from their payroll on all levels of business combined.
According to the report, 100,000 of these jobs were from large businesses, 223,000 from medium-sized businesses, and 209,000 jobs from small businesses. Job losses between the goods-producing sector and the service-producing sector were almost even, with 267,000 and 265,000 job losses respectively.
The government will publish its take on the situation on Friday when the Labor Department releases its …read more

In the face of the deepening economic recession, Hewlett Packard has decided to cut about 2% of its jobs, which amounts to 6,400 employees. These steps will be taken in order to alleviate the aftermath of a drop in profits, which fell 17 percent to $1.7 billion.
Hewlett Packard has expressed its pessimism over the state of the market in other ways as well, increasing its predicted drop in sales from 2-5 percent to 4-5 percent. The company predicts that sales of personal computers will be especially hard hit.
The company will not be flatly cutting jobs, though. Rather, Hewlett Packard continues …read more

Internet giant Yahoo! announced today that they’d be cutting nearly 700 jobs after a lackluster first quarter in 2009. No one is surprised, since the company has been in a slump for the past three years.

This is the third round of layoffs for Yahoo! in just over a year, but this is the first batch since they hired CEO Carol Bartz back in January. The cuts will affect about 5% of their employees, who will be notified within the next two weeks.
Yahoo! laid off 1,000 workers in February 2008 and another 1,500 in the fourth quarter.  Many of those being …read more

McClatchy Co. (the publisher of 30 daily newspapers) will cut 1,600 jobs or about 15 percent of its workforce. As newspapers are trying to stay in business with plummeting advertising sales, the job cuts weren’t that unexpected but they were drastic.
The company publishes a variety of papers around the country including The Miami Herald and Sacramento Bee.
“The effects of the current national economic downturn make it essential that we move even faster to realign our workforce and make our operations more efficient,” Chairman and Chief Executive Gary Pruitt said in a statement.
McClatchy will incur approximately $30 million in severance costs, …read more

Jewelry giant Zale Corp. announced it will close 115 of its retail stores after posting a net loss for the second fiscal quarter (ending Jan. 31).
In a drastic downturn, the company posted a $23.6 million loss for the quarter–down from a profit of $60.8 million for the same quarter the previous year.
Sales for the quarter were down nearly 18% from the $828 million in the same period the year ago.
The reduction in number of stores is expected to save Zales $34 million through fiscal 2010. The company has not yet indicated which of its stores would be closed.
Zales upcoming plans …read more