Alcatel-Lucent the telecom equipment manufacturer has unveiled its latest plans to cut up to 10,000 jobs across the globe before the end of 2015. The company announced its plans on Tuesday and hopes to save as much as $1.36 billion to turn the company around following years of losses.
The company is a product of a merger between a French and U.S. company in 2006 that created a global giant. The company told a works council meeting in Europe that it will cut 4,100 jobs in Europe, Africa and the Middle East, 3,800 in the Asia Pacific region and 2,100 across the Americas.
This step is the latest in its “Shift Plan” the company announced back in June focusing on the high speed broadband and networking products, and to lower its fixed costs by over 15%.
Alcatel shares were up 2% on Tuesday in early trading in Europe. The stock has nearly tripled during 2013 on hopes that Combes, who was CEO at Vodafone Europe, would shore up the company.
The group has over 72,000 employees worldwide and its competition is China’s Huawei, Finland’s Nokia and Sweden’s Ericcson. Alcatel-Lucent has had five consecutive quarters of losses.
The CFDT union in France said it was against the plan and would fight the planned 15,000, even though 5,000 new ones would be created. Nine hundred jobs would be lost in France due to the closing of five sites.
A source inside the French government, which had followed the problems of Alcatel-Lucent closely as it battles against the increasing unemployment inside France, emphasized that A-L’s plan was the company’s attempt at pushing itself onto a track of growth.
The merger of Alcatel-Lucent was to pool resources but savings were lost because of huge price competition and slowing economies.
