History 2004: Iomega Reduces Workworce by 25%

At a moment when Iomega is launching REV, on which its entire future likely rests, the company has announced that it will lay off 145 people, or 25% of its workforce.

“However,” explains Anna Aguirre, VP human resources and facilities, “the largest part of the restructuring, 70 to 80 people, involves our engineering and operations in the OCT development we’ve abandoned. We will consolidate our marketing for the business solutions and consumer business in USA. There will be very few departures in Europe, mainly in administration, 4 to 5 people in Geneva.”

Charges for this action are expected to be between $5 and $7 million and the company also expects reductions of $30 to $35 million in annual costs and expense reductions, compared to 2004 annualized run rates, when fully implemented at the end of 2005.

Following this decision, Aguirre emphasized that 300 people would continue to focus on REV and customer satisfaction in Roy, UT, !omega’s former HQ, transferred to San Diego, CA, in 2001.

Iomega is pursuing the possibility of licensing OCT technology, but it’s hard to imagine who would possibly be interested, or how to convince them when even the inventor isn’t, anymore. 

This article is an abstract of news published on issue 201 on October 2004 from the former paper version of Computer Data  Storage Newsletter.