FRANKFURT -(Dow Jones)- Siemens AG (SI) Friday said plans to restructure its fixed-line network operations could lead to up to 1,250 job cuts.
Germany largest engineering and electronics firm said it plans to cut around 600 jobs at three of its production facilities in Germany and up to another 650 jobs outside Germany.
Siemens said it is being forced to implement these measures because of continuing difficulties in the fixed-line network industry, which has been hit by rising competition and overcapacity.
Siemens had already said last year it will cut around 100 jobs at the fixed-line network business, located at its Munich-based headquarters, by the end of 2005.
"In total we aim to cut around 700 jobs in Germany," Siemens spokeswoman Lesley Nicol clarified. She said it was too early to estimate the costs of the restructuring.
"This (overhaul) is not so much about cost savings or synergies," she noted, "but mostly relates to moving our business into new (network) technologies."
Siemens' fixed-line network unit is part of Siemens' largest division, communications, which also includes its loss-making mobile phone unit.
The division had a global workforce of 60,000 at the end of 2004 and saw its sales in 2005's first fiscal quarter shrink 7%. Profit, however, inflated by an EUR208 million gain on asset sales, jumped 38% to EUR240 million.
-By Joon Knapen, Dow Jones Newswires; +49-69-29725509; joon.knapen@dowjones.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires "
Posted to the site on 28th January 2005
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