Equant to axe 3,000 jobs

August 23, 2001 Posted: 0740 GMT

LONDON (CNN) -- Equant, a European provider of high-speed data networks, said on Thursday it plans to axe about 3,000 jobs, or 20 percent of its workforce.

The Netherlands-based company said about 1,500 of those jobs will go by the end of the year. Equant currently employs about 13,300 people in the UK and France.

Equant said the cost of redundancies will reduce profit by between $40 million and $50 million, but it expects cost savings of about $100 million a year.

The jobs losses come as a result of the company's merger with Global One, a unit of France Telecom (PFTE), which paid $3.5 billion for Equant in November. The purchase created a data communications network focused on serving business customers in 220 countries and territories.

At the time of the takeover, the companies said the combination would generate more than $300 million in annual cost savings within three years.

Global One was a joint venture between France Telecom and Deutsche Telekom (FDTE) and Sprint FON Group (FON: Research, Estimates), until the partners fell out and France Telecom took full control earlier last year.

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