RICHARDSON, Texas -- About two weeks ago, components and subsystems maker Chorum Technologies Inc. quietly let go 250 employees, about 31 percent of its staff, in order to cut costs in a choking economy.

"Our product design activity is still going well and research and development has been unabated," says Scott Grout, Chorum's CEO. "But our customers in this space are hurting. This was an action on our part to adjust to that."

Most of the jobs cut were positions related to Chorum's manufacturing operations. Some production efficiencies Chorum has realized over its first full year of commercial producing products also contributed to the layoffs, Grout says.

With this round of layoffs, Chorum's overall headcount has dropped from more than 800 to 561. That's about 17 percent fewer than the 676 folks it employed at the end of last year.

Grout says that all of the cuts were made in its Richardson office and none at Polar Beam, a Chinese raw materials maker Chorum bought earlier this year.

So far this year, Chorum has announced two customers, Nortel Networks Corp. (NYSE/Toronto: NT) and TyCom Ltd. (NYSE: TCM; BSX: TCM), and acquired two firms, Polar Beam and Polytronix (see TyCom Buying Chorum Filters, Chorum Seals Deal With Nortel), and Chorum to Acquire Polytronix). Citing market conditions, the company withdrew its bid for a public offering in March (see Chorum Withdraws IPO).

-- Phil Harvey, Senior Editor, Light Reading http://www.lightreading.com