Adobe slashes staff numbers worldwide

Software Supplier returns to profit as sales functions are relocated.

Adobe is axing nine per cent of its worldwide workforce or 250ocated. staff - 100 of whom will come from its European headquarters in Edinburgh, Scotland.

This means the 30 remaining staff in the Edinburgh office will now only handle customer support. European sales functions will be based in Paris and marketing and administration will be folded back into the desktop publishing software supplier's headquarters in San Jose, California.

The move follows the software vendor's decision in September last year to reduce its staff by 350 - mainly US workers - when it was struggling in the face of slow Apple sales. But since then, its fortunes have rebounded, and last week Adobe predicted that profit for the quarter ended 28 May would be higher than analysts' projections of approximately $42 million or $0.64 per share, while revenue was expected to grow to about $246 million.

Adobe will announce its figures on 17 June.

In the previous quarter, Adobe made $38.3 million in profit or $0.60 per share for the period ended 27 February, compared with profit of $26.7 million or $0.38 per share a year ago. Analysts had predicted a profit of $0.52 per share.

Wall Street investors have acknowledged Adobe's improved fortunes by sending the share price up to more than $75 at the close of trading on 2 June, up $2.56 on the day from just over $23 in September 1998.

But according to Graham Freeman, senior vice president for worldwide sales and support at Adobe, the vendor plans to use the $30 million per year saved on staff costs to launch into the e-business space and market a revamped e-commerce Website.

Freeman said the supplier's existing Website acts mainly as a source of information, but it attracts about nine million unique visitors each month. 'We are going to turn it into an e-commerce type site,' he stated.

Details of the company's e-business model will be released over the next six months, Freeman added.