Technology  July 12, 2016

Local impact of Seagate’s 14% workforce cut unclear

LONGMONT — How employees at Seagate Technology’s Longmont facility will be affected by the data-storage maker’s plan to cut about 6,500 employees, or 14 percent of its global workforce, by June 2017 remained unclear Tuesday.

In a statement on Monday afternoon, Seagate (Nasdaq: STX) said its restructuring activities and global consolidation would help it operate within a gross margin range of 27 percent to 32 percent by the quarter ending in December.

Officials at the Longmont plant at 389 Disc Drive were unavailable for comment. At the company’s Cupertino, Calif. headquarters, spokesman Eric DeRitis said late Tuesday that the next step in the process will be to evaluate the workforce needs of each facility.

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In the Form 8-K filed Monday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Seagate also said it was taking a pretax charge of $164 million during the 2017 fiscal year, including about $82 million in cash for employee termination costs.

Seagate had laid off about 70 workers in Longmont in September, a month after the company acquired Dot Hill Systems Corp. At that time, Seagate had 1,400 workers at its Longmont facility, and DeRitis estimated that about 1,600 people work there now. When Seagate acquired disk-drive maker Maxtor in 2006, about 650 Maxtor employees in Longmont lost their jobs.

At the close of trading on Tuesday, shares of Seagate were up $5.26 or 21.83 percent at $29.35.

LONGMONT — How employees at Seagate Technology’s Longmont facility will be affected by the data-storage maker’s plan to cut about 6,500 employees, or 14 percent of its global workforce, by June 2017 remained unclear Tuesday.

In a statement on Monday afternoon, Seagate (Nasdaq: STX) said its restructuring activities and global consolidation would help it operate within a gross margin range of 27 percent to 32 percent by the quarter ending in December.

Officials at the Longmont plant at 389 Disc Drive were unavailable for comment. At the company’s Cupertino, Calif. headquarters, spokesman Eric DeRitis said late Tuesday that the next step in the process…

Dallas Heltzell
With BizWest since 2012 and in Colorado since 1979, Dallas worked at the Longmont Times-Call, Colorado Springs Gazette, Denver Post and Public News Service. A Missouri native and Mizzou School of Journalism grad, Dallas started as a sports writer and outdoor columnist at the St. Charles (Mo.) Banner-News, then went to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch before fleeing the heat and humidity for the Rockies. He especially loves covering our mountain communities.
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