History (1999): 8,000 Jobs to Go at Seagate or 10% of Workforce

Seagate Technology plans to cut 8,000 jobs, or 10% of its workforce over the next 8 months, including the 1,600 lay-offs previously announced for Singapore.

The additional cuts are planned in Malaysia, China, Europe and USA.

The company is shrinking like a violet. From 110,000 employees in 1997, it will drop to roughly 72,000, while sales have dropped from $8.9 billion in FY97 to $6.8 billion in FY99.

Thanks to these drastic measures, it expects to save $150 million in manufacturing costs annually.

This article is an abstract of news published on issue 141 on October 1999 from the former paper version of Computer Data Storage Newsletter.