Chip Makers Slicing Staff

Silicon Valley chip makers Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), Intersil and Anadigics announced workforce cuts this week in the wake of an economic downturn and a declining market forecast for 2009.

Sunnyvale -based AMD announced Wednesday that it will slice 500 positions, or about three percent of its workers worldwide. The company posted a third quarter loss last month of $67 million, its eighth consecutive quarterly loss. Earlier this year AMD said it will cut its workforce by 1600, or 10 percent; that reduction was completed this past spring.

Intersil Corp. of Milpitas announced Wednesday it will cut its global workforce by 140, or nine percent, due to current economic conditions. Most of the cuts will become from the consolidation of the company's Palm Bay, Fla., fabrication facilities, which will conclude during the first half of 2009.

"Unfortunately, we are entering a period of significant uncertainty and we feel the prudent approach is to respond quickly," said Dave Bell, Intersil's president and CEO. "We are taking action to lower our current and future operating expenses in order to align our cost structure with the current business conditions, and maintain our competitive position during this economic downturn."

Intersil said the cuts are expected to reduce its overall annual operating costs by about $12 million to $14 million.

"We believe we are taking the necessary steps to not only respond to the current economic conditions, but also to better prepare Intersil for sustained long-term success," Bell said.

Anadigics said it will cut about 100 positions, or 15 percent of its employees (See Anadigics Reduces Workforce).

“This was a difficult decision because of the impact it has on people, but was a necessary step in our plan to return the company to growth and profitability as soon as possible," said Gilles Delfassy, Anadigics's chairman and interim CEO, in a statement. "We are continuing critical investments in new products and other strategic initiatives that focus on making our customers successful.”

On Monday market research firm Gartner Inc. said it is lowering its preliminary integrated circuit industry revenue projections for 2008 and 2009. The company had previously projected that the IC industry would grow slightly over 4 percent this year, but now says it expects only 2 percent growth. It is downgrading expectations for 2009 from its previous estimate of nearly 8 percent growth to a revenue increase of only 1 percent over 2008 and said its conceivable the market could decline further. The company's formal report won't be finalized until the end of the month.

For more information, visit: www.amd.com, www.intersil.com or www.anadigics.com