SiliconBeat

Avanex, the Fremont fiber optics company, said today that last Tuesday it “implemented a world-wide reduction in force that will result in the termination” by the end of this month of about 47 employees, or about 8 percent of the work force it had at the end of June. The move is to “reduce costs, streamline operations, and improve cost structure.” Fewer people doing more work, we suspect, which we know something about here in newspaper land.

The company will also close its Melbourne, Florida facility by the end of this month and transfer the product lines, inventory and fixed assets to either its France or China offices.

No word on how much this will cost the company in restructuring and impairment charges because a “good faith estimate” is “not available at this time.”

Let’s give credit where it’s due: “In connection with the Company’s cost reduction efforts, all executive officers have each voluntarily agreed to a reduction in their salaries by 10% beginning October 2008.”

Of course some of these same executives also received sizable restricted stock grants as part of an employee retention agreement a week after Avanex reverse split its shares so that stockholders were given one share in exchange for every 15 they already owned.