Intel to Lay Off Thousands 266
symbolset writes to say that "Intel is expecting to lay off 10% of their workforce in a move to become more competitive against rival AMD. From the article: 'The Santa Clara, Calif.-based chipmaker, having suffered several financially disappointing quarters, launched an internal analysis in April to find ways to increase its efficiency. [CEO Paul] Otellini is scheduled to announce the results of the analysis, including the layoff, on Tuesday after the stock market closes, sources familiar with the plans said. Intel has about 100,000 employees worldwide, so the cut could be as high as 10 percent of the company's staff.' Coverage also at The Register, internetnews.com, and more as it develops at Google News. Reuters has the number at up to 16,000."
Hopefully not by email (Score:5, Insightful)
But this is still a huge number of people to get rid off. Don't they do these sort of checks all the time, on a department basis. This sound more like a simple reaction to we can't do anything better, so we will fire people. A bad solution to a problem if you ask me.
Re:Hopefully not by email (Score:5, Insightful)
Close, but not quite. When they had less competition, they probably just threw people at problems their current staff couldn't solve. Now that there's competition, they have to cut back. The simple reaction you talk about was probably needlessly throwing people at problems in the past.
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Re:Hopefully not by email (Score:5, Interesting)
Of course not, but who said that was the only reason? Intel may have had competition from AMD for a while, but Intel are just now starting to take that seriously. Intel hung on to the P4 - against a constant AMD barrage - for a really long time. But in the past year AMD has beaten Intel to the affordable 64-bit chips, affordable dual-core chips, affordable enterprise-class server chips (opteron), and affordable preformance chips (overclockers, gamers).
I will admit that the last 4 computers I have built for myself wore a sticker that read "AMD Inside." Most recently, in Feb of this year, I constructed a PC that ran a dual core AMD Opteron processor (165). On the first boot I cranked the core speed from 1.8ghz to 2.5ghz and its been running smoothly ever since. Thats a great chip, and it only cost $2xx USD, whereas the equivalent P4 at the time was near 850-1000 USD.
I will also say that I am extremely pleased with Intel lately. The archetecture of the "Core" line of processors is really cool. They are fast, dual-core, and low power. To me, this symbolizes the first REAL response to AMD by Intel.
I have spoken to people who worked as engineers at Intel. Some of the projects were really cool, but most never made it out of the labratory. Intel is an R&D firm... they do great research. I hope the layoffs don't really affect that part of the company.
Re:Hopefully not by email (Score:4, Insightful)
It seems like a knee-jerk reaction to me. They're losing money and they don't want to scare off the investors. Easiest way to do that is to reduce the money flowing out of the company which usually means layoffs. Less salaries gives the appearance of more profit margins
Everytime, I hear of layoffs though I always think of Office Space
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0151804/quotes [imdb.com]Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
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Re:Hopefully not by email (Score:4, Insightful)
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I would have thought it was a great deal too when I was in College: "Hey, you no longer have to work and here's twenty thousand dollars." Woohoo!!! Lets party!
Unfortunatly, once you graduate college it becomes a much more difficult situation. A middle aged engineer (and his/her family) can become quickly accustomed to that
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The layoffs are in Marketing. *cackle* Hey sucks to be them, I wonder if they will replace them in Bangalore.
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Word is... (Score:2, Funny)
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"ZOMG! The socket 7 chip on the motherboard isn't GenuineIntel! Don't let it POST!"
That little bit of Intel "class" is why I've gone AMD-only to begin with.
Not knee jerk (Score:5, Insightful)
mod parent up (Score:2)
Intel has a hand in a lot of IC markets, not just CPU's. There has to be some needless redundancy in managing these (ie, a manager for widget A line and a separate manager for widget B line -- are they both necessary?). While these are good strategies when you set out, these lines may integrate well with the core management structure. That means job cuts, but the talented
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This isn't a statistics discussion, it's a business discussion. "Below average" not in the strict mathematical computation, but below the average feasible performance level for the company at that time. When you're locked in competition, the bar rises, as you can afford to pay less salaries so the ones you do pay better count.
I know it's hard to grasp on slashdot sometimes, but keep it in the perspective of th
The other boot hitting the floor (Score:3, Informative)
I think Intel has more class than some other companies.
Despite your optimism, I was spot on with my prediction [slashdot.org].
Many other companies in the past, including one I worked for, begin by slashing managers. Then they consolidate operations under a new management structure and then the big cut happens as the attempt to eliminate "redundant" operations and employees. This is a tricky thing to do because sometimes they cut out keystone employees which are their real foundation and founder a bit. Expect anothe
Just fire one: CEO Paul Otellini. (Score:3, Insightful)
That Slashdot story linked to a Forbes story about Intel laying off 1000 managerial positions [forbes.com]. That was an admission that Intel has been badly managed in the past. Otherwise, how could they have 1,000 managers they don't need?
They don't need to fire thousands. They need to fire Intel CEO Paul Otellini. He has made Intel more adversarial toward its employees, and therefore less efficient. Intel employees spend a good part o
Intel marketing: Major disgusting joke. (Score:3, Interesting)
Intel's board is obviously incompetent, and obviously not paying attention. The board let the stupidity happen.
Intel marketing is so disgusting that it is difficult to find words that are negative enough. Here is an example that par
Nonono, it's a GOOD solution. (Score:2)
They should start with the bunny suit guys (Score:2, Insightful)
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WTF? (Score:3, Funny)
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Indeed. It always puzzles me that a company's first reaction to reduced profits is to generate demoralize staff and generate ill-will through mass firings.
To make an analogy, if you start suffering from hypothermia your body starts sacrificing limbs to save the core. This allows you to live just a little bit longer. But this is a near-sighted strategy---having functional limbs seems to me more importan
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I beg your pardon? Intel is absolutely dominating AMD in the notebook market. It already had the vast majority in the desktop market, and with the release of the Core 2 Duo, it's only going to get worse. And on top of that, the new Xeons are better performers than the Opterons in every server test you can imagine. (Although Opteron scalability is still more efficient, thanks to the on-die memory controller.) The "monopoly" was shattered
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Why do you think that, given the well-known fact that companies that undergo significant layoffs underperform the market for the next few years?
10% may be below the critical threshold where cuts do more harm than good, but not by much.
"This job cut may help" would be a rational statement. "This cut is going to help" indicates an unjustified level of confidence in anyone's ability to predict the consequences of a complex a
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I can't find any documentation that would suggest this is true. Can you provide studies or empirical examples?
You're right; I am probably pl
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Unless the 10% they're firing are the same 10% who the other 90% with way too much money hired because there was nothing else they could think to do with it...?
I know it's a popular myth that the Netburst arch was designed by the marketing team and that Intel is a big lumbering behemoth that was caught napping by AMD and the K8, but I wonder how much management and
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The end of the Intel monopoly hasn't happened yet. It didn't happen when Athlon 64 or Opteron was released. It
Intel will beat down AMD (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Intel will beat down AMD (Score:5, Interesting)
Unfortunately, successful companies have a bad habit of hiring people to do new projects 'because they can'. The money is there to hire more people, so, they hire more people. The more successful the company is, the less scrutiny is applied to how likely the new proect is t result in actual new revenue for the company.
After enough of this, the company finds itself burdened with a lot of labor working on things that are not really relevant o the company's main business, which negatively impacts the company's performance, and ultimately forces a layoff.
It would be better, of course, if sucessful companies could avoid the temptation in the first place and give that money to shareholders.
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Um, here's the relevant quote from TFA:
Marketing staff are a necessary evil. They are super important when there's not really much difference between you
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Don't hold your breath waiting for that to happen.
Motorola never really made any money supplying CPUs for Apple, and neither will Intel.
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Re:Intel will beat down AMD (Score:5, Interesting)
First off, Apple has between 5-6% of the total PC base in the world right now. They have a loooong way to come even close to matching ONE of IBM (Lenovo), HP, or Dell. Intel made a nice marketing coup with lining up Apple, but its no panacea of profit.
Two, yes Intel goofed on the 64 instruction set. But WinXp runs on Athlon and Pentiums, and there's very little real 64 bit computing taking place on corporate desktops even today. Intel needed to make cheaper, faster, more efficient processors -- something they've finally done with the dual-core. Both server and desktop segements will do benefit from the latest designs.
Strikes me now that Intel finally has a decent product in the marketplace again, they're cutting back on R&D since they're 'in the game' once again. When you're behind, you have to spend money to catch up. Allowing AMD to beat them for so long on price and performance had to be galling to a company the size of Intel -- someone was asleep at the switch.
I love competition, I think Intel is in for some good times now, but I doubt they'll ever be as dominant as they were in the early 90s ever again. AMD has their work cut out for them, but getting where they are today was MUCH harder than what they're facing now.
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RTFA (Score:2)
Strikes me now that Intel finally has a decent product in the marketplace again, they're cutting back on R&D since they're 'in the game' once again.
They are shaving off MARKETING STAFF. Bwahahah! Yes indeed, leave your victim complexes at the door.
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Anti-trust will not kick in simply because someone owns a large chunk of
the market.
Don't start with the little guys. (Score:5, Insightful)
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Middle management should be second, after 90% of the executives, and do NOT give them parachutes. With executives and middle management gone, you'd be surprised how much work gets done by conscientious, motivated staff. Of course, I also believe that Marxism could work too.
jfs
Pile of Crap. (Score:4, Insightful)
Middle-management is essential to getting my job done. I don't want to have to negotiate with the tool vendors on price or licenses. I don't want to have to evaluate how well people are performing. I don't want to have to find, interview, and hire new employees. I don't want to do the department budget, set the schedule, fight to get materials on time from vendors, etc, etc. And, most importantly, I don't want to have to explain what I'm doing to upper management.
Now, some managers are definitely useless, but so are some engineers. That's not a job-level problem, that's a people problem.
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I wonder how many multi-core CPUs they needed to finally compute the wisdom of this decision.
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http://news.com.com/Intel+axes+1,000+managers/2100 -1014_3-6093843.html [com.com]
10% seems fairly drastic to me for a company that is still VERY profitable in 'bad' quarters, but large organizations also tend to over-staff during the best years.
Friendly tip from a competitor (Score:4, Insightful)
2. Stop making a new core every other Tuesday, m'kay?
3. 4MB of cache is nice, but it has to be hella expensive right? [*]
4. Merge with Nvidia, totally mess up the PC scene, it'll be fun
[*] Don't look at the retail cost for the true margins they make [if any] on the cores. Selling at a loss or near loss is not a new tactic.
Tom
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(shudders) I can see the disclaimers and support lines for PC gaming now. Every game needing two versions to be built, directx versions dependant upon amd vs intel, it would be like the massive difference between graphics drivers now, but taken to the extreme. At least nvidia and intel both have decent levels of support for linux.
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And yeah, it is nice that Intel is more pro-OSS...
Tom
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Is Intel really selling any of the chips at a loss?
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1. You're purposefully mis-spelling "the" and can call Intel stupid on what grounds? How many CPU architectures have you done that are half as competitive as Core? Direct links are excellent for UP and small SMP systems. When scaling up, the situation is fa
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1) Google "Intel CSI"
2) Point-to-point links are not always better than a shared bus. Its a tradeoff. Some factors swing one way. Some swing the other way. (Power is a big one. HT was a power-hog for a while and caused a problem in the notbook sector.)
1) Google "Intel converged core" or "Intel converged chip"
1) They have
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Chances are they'll do one of two things
1. Roll out their own CPU interconnect with a bridge to HTX
2. Roll out their own HT but call it ZippyDataTransit or say Lightning Data Transport [hehehe chuckle, *] and claim it's 1.97x faster than AMDs
Tom
[*] Bonus points for anyone who can tell me why the latter name suggestion is funny.
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Um...
Righto
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2. The revision of the 754-pin and 939-pin processors were COMPATIBLE. None of this "your i845 northbridge is no good, get a 915, oh your 915 is no good, get a 945, oops, I meant 955, no 965 no 975!!!!". I went through several revisions of AMD64s in my Asus K8V motherboard including the dual-core 4200 and 4800 series.
3. Yes, it's nice that it's smaller but transistors still cost money. You have to get all 20
Do it back to them. (Score:4, Interesting)
The goal of Quit Your Job Day is to reverse the advantage perpetuated by an elitist class who profit from your actions without making any personal investment in you as an individual. If you don't know who profits from your hard work, I assure you that they care very little about you. You are just a line on a spreadsheet and if cutting your salary would make the column balance, you're fired.
http://www.quityourjobday.com/ [quityourjobday.com]
Re:Do it back to them. (Score:5, Interesting)
It all comes back to monkeyspace. Big corporations exceed it, and need a kick in the pants (or regulations) to return balance. That's one reason why many small businesses are not regulated, and why many don't need it (oh sure, some do...some really do) - the 50 employee limit is within a standard human monkeyspace.
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Groups that get too big lose touch with any sense of humanity. You can't keep your humanity when your boss and his boss are telling you to pay attention to numbers. And when a big group makes a mistake, well the humanity that's affected is huge. 10,000 people is a lot of people.
Quit your corp job, start your own company. Keep it small and be happy.
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That's probably the highest-returning investment on not casting out the mote in one's brethren's eye in all the time since Jesus coined the phrase.
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We don't need more unions. They were needed in the past, but now they are just self serving entities.
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Actually since it's unlikely that everyone would quit at once, you're dead wrong. Minor adjustments in a small percentage of workers wouldn't dramatically affect the costs of the goods they provide.
Besides, do you really think it costs starbucks $4 to make that coffee drink you have every morning? No, that's pure profit my friend.
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I'm not sure about Europe, but almost everyone in the US is working "at will". That means either party can terminate employment at any time.
Anyone know if that's the case in Europe?
This is hardly news. (Score:3, Insightful)
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I'm just surp
Is this how companies compete now? (Score:5, Funny)
Back in my day, we remained competitive by building a superior product at an affordable price, up-hill both ways!
/get off my lawn
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- Tash [tashcorp.net]
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Yeah. My pre-globalization, 1958 Edsel has far superior quality, reliability, and affordability compared to my post-globalization 2006 Honda Civic.
Brilliant... (Score:2, Troll)
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And aren't enforceable everywhere.
Tom
Re:Brilliant... (Score:4, Interesting)
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Non-compete clauses generally do not apply to people who are laid off. The ones I have signed have only applied in the case where I choose to quit.
Just as an aside, when you are asked to sign something like this, make sure you read it. If you don't like it, talk to your potential employer and see if you can negotiate different wording. My current company tried to have me sign a very open-ended non-compete. The way it was worded, at least seemed to me (and my attorney)
This is old news to people at Intel (Score:5, Interesting)
One thing that I've always thought about company layoff planning is that there's a difficult choice to be made over when to notify employees that a layoff is in the works. Too little notice and people feel like they're being dumped without warning, too much and you have a long period of tension and a lot of people slacking off because they know that they're headed for the unemployment line.
When I worked for a division of a major company that was planning layoffs, we all knew in June that the offices in California were going to be closed by the end of the year, and offical notice came in October. The company did something that I considered a stand-up thing: they told us who was going (in October) and gave us official permission for the rest of the year to look for work using company resources. It was cool for them to give us that much notice (though because of the slow market at the time, it was hard to find work even with such a long lead time). However, a lot of employees (including ones who really were supposed to be doing something else) spent the time building houses of cards out of their company business cards, driving remote-controlled cars around the cubes, and generally goofing off.
Again, it was a cool thing for the company to do (and I am aware that there are financial incentives for getting your employees hired off before closing an office--but I don't think those offset the cost of paying them salary for three months) but I can see that there are employers who couldn't afford to do that.
Here's hoping all the folks getting pink slips at Intel can find something else to do as quickly as they'd like.
More competitive? (Score:5, Interesting)
This is just to make the actions go up and make the investors richer, but it won't make them more competitive to AMD, and more attractive to customers.
My compassion will to the laid off employees, and my money will go to AMD when I'll buy a new chip.
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I agree that AMD is a smart choice both on technological and political fronts. But for the general public with a 1P configuration the benefits of AMD can be lost on them.
Re:More competitive? (Score:5, Insightful)
If needed and done right, it's the way capitalism is supposed to work. If it's just a wall-street ploy and actually hurts other areas of their bottom line, well, poo on them.
Deff (Score:4, Funny)
-Grey [wellingtongrey.net]
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Crazy language.
Wonderful (Score:2)
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Special bonus question: Will step 5 ever execute?
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You've got the algorithm wrong. This one is none standard.
The bonus question should be: When does this unsustainable model collapse?
Just how long can the rich get richer and still sell stuff the poor who are getting poorer?
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You don't have to. Just imagine cutting your state or city off from the rest of the country. You'll get the same sort of results.
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The question isn't where will the good paying jobs come from. The question is where will we find the people to fill them. There is already a shortage of good engineers in certain fields and hardware design is one of those fields.
Re: your hot jobs for the next 50 years (Score:3, Insightful)
killed off the alpha group (Score:2, Interesting)
Well that worked well didn't it? (Score:3, Interesting)
And The Reg, Reuters and Slashdot have got it now?
I love it when a plan comes toge... oh. Ah. Well, errrmmm.... if you work for Intel, have a GREAT weekend, and if you own shares, well, you've only got some 20+ hours trading to go before the announcement, so take your time...
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I was a little surprised it made it onto
offshoring (Score:2, Interesting)
Intel: formerly great, now the US Steel of Tech (Score:4, Insightful)
What Intel is at heart, and will be for some time, is the world's best high-volume manufacturer of semiconductors, something that requires a far, far lower load of white-collar workers than being a broad-ranging technology company. Intel will continue to be a great producer of an important product, but only in the sense that (e.g.) US Steel was once a great producer of an important product. Intel is on the path to irrelevance as a technology force. This is why its P/E is 17x and not, for example, Google's 55x or even Microsoft's 21x. Look for it to trend upward in the short-term, but in the longer term settle toward US Steel's 8x.
Also note that recent management changes have elevated Sean Maloney into an heir-apparent position. This signals the fin de siecle, completing the transition from an engineer/scientist leader (Andy Grove) through a manufacturing guru (Barrett), to a bean-counter (Otellini), ending with a salesman (Maloney). How the mighty have fallen.
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Every company has dead weight - larger companies have more dead weight. I would hazzard a guess that large companies actually have a higher percentage of dead weight because a non-productive person can hide easier within the system. In a smaller company the dead weight is more easily noticed.
The key is to identify the dead weight and jettison then every so often. Intel has such a back-log of getting rid of dead weight they need a
God damnit, could you PLEASE RTFA (Score:2)
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Maybe. If it wasn't for the fact that this is nearly equal to the total number of employees AMD already has (AMD has about 11,000 employees - not counting ATI's 4,000). They don't need that many people. They'll probably grab a few choice people.
And don't be so sure about the standard cliches regarding who is faster/cheaper. It varies a lot in this industry. Now that Intel has finally turned away from Ne
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Don't don't think AMD will take this lying down--I'm sure by early spring 2007 they'll have next-generation CPU's that will equal the Conroe-core CPU's but with l
Re:Intel's lose is another's gain? (Score:4, Insightful)
Actually, that may not be a good assumption. Often in engineering industries the more experienced workers are the first to be laid off. A company can hire two or three bright-eyed bushy tailed college grads for the price of one engineer with 20 years experience.