EMC lays off 1,000 employees

Storage giant reorganises following acquisitions

Storage vendor EMC is laying off 1,000 employees worldwide during 2006, CRN understands.

EMC, which has spent roughly $4bn on acquisitions over the past two years, said the move will help it to "rebalance" its workforce. It is believed the vendor's workforce was roughly 25, 200 as of October last year.

Joe Tucci, chief executive of EMC, said: "The best companies preserve their leadership by looking out to the horizon and making adjustments today to position themselves for shifts in customers’ expectations and market dynamics."

The move is expected cost EMC roughly $80m in cash charges during its fourth quarter. The vendor is expected to post preliminary fourth quarter revenues of between $2.7bn and $2.71bn, up from an earlier target of $2.67bn to $2.69bn, later this month.

Separately, EMC also completed its $275m acquisition of input management software vendor Captiva earlier this week.

Nigel Ghent, marketing director for UK and Ireland at EMC, told CRN the acquisition would not change Captiva's existing 60 per cent direct and a 40 per cent indirect sales focus.

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