RICHARDSON, Texas -- Fujitsu Network Communications Inc. (FNC) said Friday that it has fired about 600 workers this week in light of stagnant carrier spending on telecom equipment.
Four hundred of those let go were based here at FNC's U.S. headquarters. The cuts began on Monday and were across all job titles, according to John Stewart, FNC's senior director of marketing and corporate communications.
FNC's layoffs aren't surprising in the least. Its parent company, Fujitsu Ltd. (KLS: FUJI.KL), reported earlier this year that sales for its North American Transmission Equipment business would fall some 56 percent in the current fiscal year.
FNC had about 2,300 employees at the beginning of this year, and that total is now down to around 1,700. Last year, FNC cut 500 jobs -- 15 percent of its North American workforce.
The cuts come on the heels of management changes at FNC. The company recently brought on a new group president and chief operating officer, George Chase, who was evidently charged with reviewing the company's books and resizing FNC in line with its parent company's forecasts (see Fujitsu Exec Returns After VC Stint).
But like a 350-pound linebacker bearing down on a panic-stricken quarterback, layoffs aren't any easier to take just because you see them coming from several yards away. "It just hurts," says Stewart.
In related FNC news, the company is trying to keep its chin up for the launch of a new product at NFOEC. The company is preparing to unveil a smaller version of its Flashwave 4100 product, an access box that RBOCs use to deliver data and TDM services to large corporate customers.
The new box, the Flashwave 4010, partly came from FNC's service provider customers' desire to extend the Sonet ring and its associated services all the way to the customer premises, Stewart says.
re: Fujitsu Makes More Cuts Ah yes, another purge. Icing on the cake is todays reduction in the company match for 401k/DRA- effectively a 2.75% pay cut. Can hardly wait for the job market to pick up so that I can get on with my life.
re: Fujitsu Makes More Cuts The Flashwave has one foe. Form, fit and function, it is the Metro Optix City Stream. So what does Fujitsu fear? Such that THEY must layoff workers. In the mass exodus, who will notice Fujitsu's few. Will they claim NO FEAR! Or they love carnage as much as the next.
re: Fujitsu Makes More Cuts They reported 500 last year and 600 now for a total of 1100. I believe that number is probably higher.
Of the reported 1100 cuts the majority of the cuts were in service and sales. They had an E,F, &I revenue soemwhere in the neighborhood of $800M to $1B at one time. That revenue stream has been severely reduced in the last year. Most of their cuts have been in FNS which is the service group. They are closing that group down and moving what's left back into FNC.
The next group to take the biggest cut was the Sales group. The R&D group "percentage wise" has one of the lowest rates.
Just think you effectively got a 2.75% salary reduction which more than likely would have been lost in your 401K plan in today's market place. Next week look at your pay check and it will probably be the same. Then ask all of your laid off friends and co-workers what theirs looks like.
I bet they would be happy to trade with you. Be thankful you still have a job. Now go back to work, design soemthing that will increase revenue in the company to a point that your friends can get their job back. If it takes you a year they will probably still be looking for work.
re: Fujitsu Makes More Cuts Wow, one mistake after another. Hard working and talented people are being let go, yet the moroons in upper management squeak by. How can that be?Engineering and Planning VPs continue to make the wrong decisions, but yet they still are employeed?
There are many projects / products that need to killed, but most importantly the executive who supported the original business plan. Oh wait a minute, that would have to be executives, since know one at Fujitsu makes a decision without making sure that they are not stepping out of line with others in management.
George needs to wipe out the entire Engineering and Planning Executive staff and bring in a power house of executives with some b*lls. Fujitsu desperately needs someone to stand up with conviction and make decisions that are for the good of Fujitusu. Mr B.E., Mr B.G., Mr G.L., abd Mr S.P. to name a few have been way to comfortable steering the ship for too long. I would like to see each one of them out looking for a job with the rest of the folks that were laid off. As an alternative, the best thing that could happen would be for all of them to report to Mr. D. S. I think it would be great to see them squirming and out of political power.
Question is, how many bad decisions does it take to justify firing an executive at Fujitsu? The answer is as many as they want. There is no accountability for the mistakes that are made.
Sounds like you were RIF'd recently since you know so much about FNC and have lots of venom. If you worked at FNC then you know the management structure is complicated. Everything is duplicated with an American and Japanese counterpart. You name a few people in a cast of thousands and you didn't include any of the Japanese in the blame game. In reality, it's the industry that's gone wrong. If there were some strong companies in the US to compare FNC to then your arguments may have some merit but there isn't a health company out there. So stop spewing and get a job, hobby, etc.,
re: Fujitsu Makes More Cuts I was RIF'd in March and found a new, better job well before I burned through their generous severance package.
I hold no grudges with Fujitsu - they treated me very well for the many years I worked there.
Throughout the 3 layoffs I endured (May 2001, Sep 2001, Nov 2001) before getting hit in the Mar 2002 one, one thing really stood out re the list of RIF'd employees. And that thing is that almost no R&D managers (other than the unlamented F150 VP and his cronies in Pearl River) ever got hit.
The ratio of managers to employees has gone from 1/5 to 1/3. It's just ridiculous to keep so many chiefs while getting rid of the indians who did all the work.
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