EMC plays down job cuts

Vendor claims it will hire more people than it is set to let go by the end of the year but cannot say if channel team will be affected

EMC has insisted that by the end of the year it will have hired more staff than it has let go.

Yesterday morning, a US 10-Q filing notice came to light, confirming that the storage giant will cut 1,800 jobs across its business, including about 800 from VMware.

However, when questioned on the update at its EMC World event in Las Vegas, the vendor played down the news, claiming the move was first confirmed in a filing in January.

An EMC representative told CRN that by the end of the year, the firm will have hired more people than it will have let go, and that the move to cut some jobs is part of the ongoing transformation of the business.

At the end of January, VMware announced that it was letting about 900 staff go, but similarly will have hired more than that by the end of the year. The EMC spokeswoman said the recent news of its staff cuts would help to rebalance the firm.

"For the past couple years, as EMC has been transforming our business, we have had ongoing rebalancing efforts. This most recent one, which was [first] disclosed on 29 January 2013, is relatively consistent with these actions to rebalance and reorganise our workforce to best align with the opportunities ahead," she added.

"EMC intends to end 2013 with more employees than we had at the beginning of the year."

EMC declined to comment further when asked if any of the jobs would be going from its channel organisation.