German industrial conglomerate Siemens plans to cut about half of the 6,200-strong workforce in Germany of corporate telecoms arm SEN ahead of its sale in coming months, a source familiar with the matter said.
Siemens Chief Executive Peter Loescher is streamlining the parent group's portfolio of businesses and one of the divisions up for sale is SEN, where Siemens has already said it is in "intensive talks".
In the past, Loescher has refused to be drawn on job cut plans at SEN, saying only that restructuring "does not come without noise".
A spokesman for Siemens declined to comment on any plans to cut headcount. Siemens intends to cut back the production of company telephone equipment at SEN.
The division, formerly Siemens Enterprise Networks, will instead focus on software. The revamp, said the source, will make the business more attractive to potential buyers.
The Munich-based combine has already said that it wants to sell the business, which has 17,500 workers worldwide, at the latest by the end of June.
Sources close to the company have said that Siemens is in talks about a sale with Alcatel-Lucent, Nortel and private-equity investor Cerberus.
The supervisory board of Siemens is set to make a decision on a sale at the end of April. SEN, which builds traditional telephone systems for companies, has been caught off guard by the growing trend of phoning over the internet.
No comments:
Post a Comment