SAN FRANCISCO—Metrology and process equipment tool vendor Veeco Instruments Inc. embarked on a restructuring program including the elimination of 26 percent of its total jobs during the fourth quarter of 2008, the company said Monday (Feb. 9). Most of the layoffs have already occurred, Veeco said.
Other cost-cutting actions that are part of Veeco's restructuring program include senior management pay cuts, a reduction in board of directors compensation and an employee wage freeze, Veeco (Plainview, N.Y.) said.
Veeco reported a GAAP net loss of $72 million, or $2.29 per share, on revenue of $110.3 million for the fourth quarter of 2008. Revenue was up from $106.8 million in the same period of 2007, but the net loss was nearly eight times the $9.4 million that Veeco lost during the comparable period, Veeco said.
The fourth quarter numbers include $80.1 million in charges, $73 million of which was for impairment of goodwill triggered by decline in the company's market capitalization and weak business environment, Veeco said.
For the full year 2008, Veeco reported a net loss of $71.1 million on revenue of $442.8 million. In 2007, Veeco logged a net loss of $17.4 million on revenue of $402.5 million.
Veeco said the workforce reduction comes amid organizational changes that will centralize the company's supply chain and operations, consolidate business units, increase outsourced manufacturing and decrease the number of manufacturing sites from eight to four.
"Veeco's fourth quarter 2008 bookings were $89 million, flat with the third quarter of 2008 despite a 57 percent decline in Data Storage bookings to a historically low level of $14 million, as customers froze capital spending," said John Peeler, Veeco CEO, in a statement. "LED and solar orders increased 69 percent sequentially to $44 million.
"This solid performance resulted from record orders for our molecular beam epitaxy systems for solar and other emerging applications, customer purchases of our thermal sources for solar cells, and two large multi-unit orders for metal organic chemical vapor deposition systems," Peeler said. "Metrology bookings were down 4 percent sequentially."
Veeco said it expects first quarter revenue of between $60 million and $70 million. The company expects bookings to decline sequentially from the fourth quarter of 2008. The company expects to report a loss per share of 56 to 72 cents, based on generally accepted accounting principles, for the quarter.
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