dezertrider
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Dezertgirl, Havasukey and my X-wife and a few freinds work there. Wish them luck!!!!
:beerHeading to the Cantina for drinks at lunch with them all.:beer
Western Digital CEO takes 33% pay cut, cuts jobs
December 17th, 2008, 9:47 am · Post a Comment · posted by Gadgetress
Update, 10:22 a.m.: Added employee numbers in Thailand and Malaysia. See below.
Its a rough day for 2,500 workers at Lake Forests Western Digital Corp. Early this morning, they learned that the computer hard-drive maker announced massive job cuts and facilities closures worldwide.
Western Digital declined to say how many employees were let go in Orange County, where it employs about 1,000 people in Lake Forest and Irvine. In June, the company employed 50,072 people worldwide.
The company said the move was due to a major reduction in demand for its products beginning in late October. Competition and eroding prices some drives are down to $0.10 per gigabyte also havent helped. Western Digital isnt alone. Earlier this month, top rival Seagate Technology reduced its revenue expectations by 20 percent for the quarter.
Major cuts announced today by Western Digital include closing manufacturing plants overseas, the 2,500 job cuts and a 33 percent pay cut by Chief Executive Officer John F. Coyne and other top executives.
The storage maker has grown tremendously in recent years, thanks to several acquisitions and consumer hunger for storage. It introduced its first terabyte drive (thats 1,000 gigabytes) last year. Also last year, it acquired hard-drive platter manufacturer Komag Inc. for $1 billion. Two years ago, it employed just 24,750 people.
Western Digitals colorful line of portable hard drives and heavy-duty computer drives targeted a consumers increasing need for more digital storage to store photos, videos and music. It also branched out into consumer-electronic products that made use of storage, such as the new HD Media Player (on right). The gadget, which enables users to plug a USB storage key into an HDTV to watch full high-definition videos, has won rave reviews from the tech world and consumers.
But this apparently hasnt been enough to lift Western Digital. With stiff competition that eroded prices, the pressure was just too much and company officials decided to cut back.
More savings will come from a handful of top executives who are taking pay cuts, according to a document filed with the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission.
John F. Coyne, president and chief executive officer, agreed to reduce his base pay by 33 percent, to $600,000 from $900,000.
Timothy M. Leyden, Chief Financial Officer: a 25 percent cut, to $412,500, from $550,000.
Raymond M. Bukaty, Senior Vice President, Administration, General Counsel and Secretary: a 15 percent cut to $340,000, from $400,000.
Hossein Moghadam, Chief Technology Officer: a 15 percent cut to $340,000 from $400,000.
Non-employee directors on the board will also receive a 15 percent reduction in the annual retainers and committee fees for 2009.
The company will close its manufacturing facility in Sarawak, Malaysia and one of two facilities in Navanakorn, Thailand. Its other manufacturing sites will reduce work hours by 20 percent through employee attrition and by limiting the number of temporary employees and overtime.
It will also reduce capital spending this year from $750 million to about $500 million.
Combined with the 2,500 job cuts, or 5 percent of its work force, the reductions are expected to save $150 million annually. The company also lowered its quarterly expectations. It now expects revenue for the December quarter of $1.7 billion to $1.8 billion, down from $2.025 billion to $2.150 billion.
The changes should get Western Digital in line with the reduced expectations and still be profitable, according to the company.
Its stock price was up 2 percent this morning, at $12.75.
Update: In Thailand, Western Digital has a fabrication plant in Bang Pa-In, and an assembly plant in Navanakorn. The latter is shutting down. According to a Bangkok Post story from January 2008, Western Digital employs 30,000 people in the country. The American Chamber of Commerce in Thailand also reports the same figure, adding that 1,500 are engineers and scientists.
According to the Digest on Malaysian News blog, 1,000 people work at the Sarawak plant in Malaysia, which is expected to shut down in late March. The former Komag operation already had 770 layoffs at the plant last May.
:beerHeading to the Cantina for drinks at lunch with them all.:beer
Western Digital CEO takes 33% pay cut, cuts jobs
December 17th, 2008, 9:47 am · Post a Comment · posted by Gadgetress
Update, 10:22 a.m.: Added employee numbers in Thailand and Malaysia. See below.
Its a rough day for 2,500 workers at Lake Forests Western Digital Corp. Early this morning, they learned that the computer hard-drive maker announced massive job cuts and facilities closures worldwide.
Western Digital declined to say how many employees were let go in Orange County, where it employs about 1,000 people in Lake Forest and Irvine. In June, the company employed 50,072 people worldwide.
The company said the move was due to a major reduction in demand for its products beginning in late October. Competition and eroding prices some drives are down to $0.10 per gigabyte also havent helped. Western Digital isnt alone. Earlier this month, top rival Seagate Technology reduced its revenue expectations by 20 percent for the quarter.
Major cuts announced today by Western Digital include closing manufacturing plants overseas, the 2,500 job cuts and a 33 percent pay cut by Chief Executive Officer John F. Coyne and other top executives.
The storage maker has grown tremendously in recent years, thanks to several acquisitions and consumer hunger for storage. It introduced its first terabyte drive (thats 1,000 gigabytes) last year. Also last year, it acquired hard-drive platter manufacturer Komag Inc. for $1 billion. Two years ago, it employed just 24,750 people.
Western Digitals colorful line of portable hard drives and heavy-duty computer drives targeted a consumers increasing need for more digital storage to store photos, videos and music. It also branched out into consumer-electronic products that made use of storage, such as the new HD Media Player (on right). The gadget, which enables users to plug a USB storage key into an HDTV to watch full high-definition videos, has won rave reviews from the tech world and consumers.
But this apparently hasnt been enough to lift Western Digital. With stiff competition that eroded prices, the pressure was just too much and company officials decided to cut back.
More savings will come from a handful of top executives who are taking pay cuts, according to a document filed with the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission.
John F. Coyne, president and chief executive officer, agreed to reduce his base pay by 33 percent, to $600,000 from $900,000.
Timothy M. Leyden, Chief Financial Officer: a 25 percent cut, to $412,500, from $550,000.
Raymond M. Bukaty, Senior Vice President, Administration, General Counsel and Secretary: a 15 percent cut to $340,000, from $400,000.
Hossein Moghadam, Chief Technology Officer: a 15 percent cut to $340,000 from $400,000.
Non-employee directors on the board will also receive a 15 percent reduction in the annual retainers and committee fees for 2009.
The company will close its manufacturing facility in Sarawak, Malaysia and one of two facilities in Navanakorn, Thailand. Its other manufacturing sites will reduce work hours by 20 percent through employee attrition and by limiting the number of temporary employees and overtime.
It will also reduce capital spending this year from $750 million to about $500 million.
Combined with the 2,500 job cuts, or 5 percent of its work force, the reductions are expected to save $150 million annually. The company also lowered its quarterly expectations. It now expects revenue for the December quarter of $1.7 billion to $1.8 billion, down from $2.025 billion to $2.150 billion.
The changes should get Western Digital in line with the reduced expectations and still be profitable, according to the company.
Its stock price was up 2 percent this morning, at $12.75.
Update: In Thailand, Western Digital has a fabrication plant in Bang Pa-In, and an assembly plant in Navanakorn. The latter is shutting down. According to a Bangkok Post story from January 2008, Western Digital employs 30,000 people in the country. The American Chamber of Commerce in Thailand also reports the same figure, adding that 1,500 are engineers and scientists.
According to the Digest on Malaysian News blog, 1,000 people work at the Sarawak plant in Malaysia, which is expected to shut down in late March. The former Komag operation already had 770 layoffs at the plant last May.
Thinking of you all!
