When the Tech Industry needs to tighten its belt, the first thing that it does is layoff non-essential personnel. Then it cuts back on R&D, Marketing, and Travel budgets. Finally, they start selling off smaller chunks of itself to other companies. Here are how some of the biggest players are dealing with their own economic woes.

Agilysys – has eliminated three top executive positions in order to reduce corporate overhead and to streamline budgets. No word on any “golden parachutes” for those executives who were let go.

Avid Technology – reports that it will be cutting 410 jobs, 15 percent of its workforce, and is also selling its Softimage 3D game animation division, along with 90 employees, to Autodesk for $35 million.

Dell – has already cut nearly 9,000 jobs over the past year as it struggles to catch up with Hewlett Packard.

Motorolla – is expected to cut thousands more jobs in addition to the 10,000 jobs cut since early last year. They hope to focus their energies on Google’s open source Android mobile operating system.

NetApp – was forced to cancel its 1st Annual User Conference scheduled for February in San Francisco. They are blaming travel cuts for their customers’ inability to attend.

Nokia – is cutting 600 jobs, primarily in their R&D and Marketing departments. It’s a bad sign when a technology company cuts R&D and has fewer people to sell any new products that might be developed.

Qwest – is slashing 1,000 jobs due to a massive earnings slip in the 3rd quarter of 2008.

SAP – is cutting R&D spending and there are rumors of a hiring freeze and restricted travel expenses.

Sun Microsystems – is in the middle of restructuring and has already laid off hundreds of employees.

Xerox – has cut 3,000 jobs, representing 5 percent of its workforce.

Yahoo – continues to struggle as its shares on Wall Street continue to plummet. They are planning to cut at least 1,500 jobs; this after cutting 1,000 jobs in February.

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Entry was posted on Tuesday, November 4th, 2008 at 4:00 pm under Yahoo!.

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