Intel Ireland seeks 200 voluntary redundancies


20 Sep 2007

Intel is to seek 200 voluntary redundancies from it’s 5,100-strong Irish workforce, it has emerged.

The majority of the redundancies will be sought from the company’s loss-making flash memory business.

The cuts sought are part of a restructuring process announced by the company last September which will see 10,500 jobs being shed globally. It was previously thought the multinational’s Irish operations would escape the brunt of the cuts.

The company expects to reap savings of US$2bn in 2007 and US$3bn in 2008 as a result of the global downsizing.

In May this year the company sectioned off its Flash memory production unit and set it up as a new company in conjunction with STMicroelectronics.

Intel posted Q2 profits in 2007 of US$1.3bn, a 44pc year-on-year rise. However, this Q2 margin was 46.9pc lower than expected due to lower average selling prices despite high demand for products.

The world’s largest chipmaker has seen its market share eroded as rival Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) bites at it heels.

By Niall Byrne