Siemens to shed 7,000 jobs

October 15, 2001 Posted: 1345 GMT

LONDON (CNN) -- Germany's Siemens said on Monday it would slash another 7,000 jobs at its loss-making fixed-line and mobile phone unit.

The German communications and engineering company has already announced plans to cut 10,000 posts as it struggles to return its Information Communications Networks Group back to profit.

"We have launched a programme of cost cutting and profit improvement with a target of 2 billion ($1.8 billion) in savings and positive earnings effects," said Thomas Ganswindt, president of ICN.

Munich-based Siemens posted a third-quarter loss of 489 million in July after telecom operators cut back on spending as an economic slowdown in the U.S. spread across the Atlantic to Europe and the Pacific to Asia.

That third-quarter loss cost Roland Koch, the executive in charge of Siemens' fixed network business, his job. The company announced plans for a radical overhaul of the business and pledged to achieve savings of about 1.4 billion.

Telecom operators have spent more than $100 billion on acquiring high-speed mobile phone licences in Europe, taking on crippling debt that has curbed spending on networks.

Siemens said 5,000 jobs would go at its fixed line business, plus 2,000 jobs at its mobile phone unit. It expects cost savings of about 400 million at the latter.

Siemens mobile phone and networks businesses said in July it would spend 790 million in the third-quarter to reorganize their activities as stocks of telecom equipment built up and demand declined.

Shares in Siemens (FSIE), which have lost more than half of their value since the beginning of the year, slipped 0.2 percent to 48.07 in afternoon trading in Frankfurt.

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