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News Article

Applied plans to scrap 240 positions

Applied Materials - the leading player in the semiconductor equipment market - is planning to cut 240 positions, according to a leaked memo from the company's chief executive Mike Splinter.
Applied Materials - the leading player in the semiconductor equipment market - is planning to cut 240 positions, according to a leaked memo from the company's chief executive Mike Splinter.

The exact number of job losses that will result from the decision is not yet known. Applied - which has a global workforce of 12,000 - says that it will try to retrain the affected workers for other positions in the company.

Embarrassingly for the company, news of the job reductions and retraining - euphemistically described as a "talent mobility" programme - only emerged when Splinter's memo was published on an internet chatroom.

In the memo, Splinter said that the initiative would "retain our skilled and dedicated people and enhance our ability to more effectively transition employees to new positions from areas where we have organisational change, consolidation of functions or job duplication".

He added: "Through the programme, affected employees will have the opportunity to search for internal short-term, part-time or regular full-time positions within a 60-day period or leave the company."

News that Applied was planning job cutbacks came as a surprise to the industry, not least because just days before the memo was leaked number one chipmaker Intel announced a huge increase in capital expenditure.

Applied would be one of the main beneficiaries of this investment. The company has however recently forecast a huge fall in orders in the first quarter of the year.

In November, the company predicted that first quarter orders would plummet by a startling 35% compared with the fourth quarter of last year.
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