Agere eliminates 950 more jobs in cost-cutting efforts

ALLENTOWN, Pa. -- Agere Systems Inc. today announced it was laying off 950 more workers as part of its ongoing efforts to reduce losses.

The Allentown-based company said the new layoffs primarily involve management positions in its product groups, worldwide sales organization, and corporate support functions. Previously this year, Agere announced plans to eliminate 6,000 jobs as a result of the semiconductor industry's downturn. Agere (formerly Lucent Microelectronics) said those cut are expected to be completed in December.

With today's actions, Agere said it has cut a total of 11,300 positions from its workforce since implementing cost cuts last year. Agere said it has realigned its product offerings in optoelectronics and integrated circuits to form two new business units -- Infrastructure Systems and Client Systems.

Agere president and CEO John Dickson said it is "critical that we continue to move forward with our plans to lower our cost structure and direct our resources to those areas that will best support our return to profitable growth. This includes a stringent review of our product portfolio to ensure strategic fit and a rigorous look at our manufacturing capacity to align it with customer demand. We are making strong progress on our restructuring initiatives," he said.

The majority of employees included in today's layoff announcement are located in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. They are expected to leave Agere's payroll over the next several months, the company said.

In the summer, Agere announced it was eliminating 4,000 jobs and restructuring its manufacturing operations, including the shutdown of its Madrid wafer fab (see June 29 story). Earlier in the year, Agere said it was cutting 2,000 jobs as the chip industry began to slip into its worst recession (see April 24 story).

Agere said it discontinued operations at its plant in Madrid in November, which was one month ahead of schedule. The facility is being sold BP plc, a British oil and gas giant, which plans to turn the wafer fab into a high-volume solar-cell production plant. Agere said the sale is expected to be completed in the next few weeks.