627 more staff to go at 2e2

Administrator said on conference call this morning that staff would go with immediate effect but would be paid to date

2e2 has announced the axing of a further 627 staff this morning on a conference call, after claiming that it has been working hard on securing a sale but has not managed it.

This wave of redundancies brings the total staff who have lost their jobs to 977 out of 1,442.

According to Phil Arundell, who live-tweeted the conference call, administrator Simon Granger of FTI Consulting told all 627 staff who were invited on the call that they would be made redundant, but would be paid up to and including today.

Some staff suspected the writing was on the wall beforehand, as their Blackberries had stopped working.

On the call, Granger said that 2e2 was keeping on a few staff to handle business-critical contracts and for core operations.

Granger said that efforts were made to ensure people would be kept on but they had to draw a line due to the huge costs of the business.

A full statement from FTI is expected imminently.

The news appears to leave FTI's ambitions to find a buyer for 2e2's UK business in tatters, despite its intimation as recently on Friday that a sale could be completed in the "very near term". A Times report on Monday claimed that Daisy had lost interest in a deal but that several firms including BT, Logicalis and Computacenter remained at the negotiating table.