Intel CEO Brian Krzanich has confirmed that layoffs are underway at the chip giant’s sprawling global operations although he didn’t say where.
In a memo, first reported by the Portland Oregonian, Krzanich confirmed rumors that have been circulating for weeks in Oregon, where Intel has major facilities.
“Yes, we are implementing headcount reductions,” he wrote in the memo.
Krzanich wrote that the layoffs will touch “no more than a few hundred employees in any given site or geography” and are partly the result of eliminating jobs in “areas of the company that have become less important,” as well as trimming “redundant activities and inefficiencies” and managing what he called “lower job performance.”
Intel has been struggling with lower PC sales that have caused a drop in demand for its microprocessor chips, a major source of revenue for the company that invented the microprocessor. It has been forced to lower its estimates for the year because of the sales slump.
At the same time, its server chip business has boomed, and it is also focusing an increasing amount of time and energy on its embedded systems business through its Internet of Things Group. It has also combined PC and mobile chip operations into a client computing group.
Krzanich pointed to “speculation” in the media about layoffs and said he was removing “the cloud of mystery” surrounding them.
He reiterated a promise made earlier in the year that Intel should end 2015 with roughly the same number of employees it started the year with.
Intel employs about 107,000 worldwide.
Photo: Intel entrance (Paul Sakuma, Associated Press)