Dell to Cut 8,000 Jobs

By Greg McNevin

June 4, 2007: Amid drooping Q1 results, Dell has announced that the company shake up that began when founder Michael Dell returned to the top job in January will continue with 10 percent of its workforce to be laid off over the next year.

Dell said its earnings for Q1 were US$759 million, down from US$762 million for the same period last year, not a spectacular drop but further evidence of its struggle against HP.

To combat its loss of market share, Michael Dell began a series of reshuffles in the company’s executive and customer service ranks earlier this year, and it appears the restructure is continuing with 8,000 of its 81,000 strong 81,000 full- and part-time workforce to go over the next year.

The company cited “business considerations as well as local legal requirements” in a statement announcing both the results and the layoffs, with Michael Dell Adding “While reductions in head count are always difficult for a company, we know these actions are critical to our ability to deliver unprecedented value to our customers now and in the future.”

Beyond its internal turmoil Dell has been making a number of strides in new directions lately, with its decision to offer Ubuntu Linux as a pre-installed option on select notebooks and desktops the first, and its announcement that it is compromising its traditional direct sales model by offering its computers in select department stores the second.

Comment on this story