Keane Inc. to eliminate 26% of its Boston jobs

Keane Inc. has notified Massachusetts officials that it plans to cut more than 26 percent of the jobs at its US headquarters in Boston over the next six months.

The technology services provider, which was run for 40 years by founder John F. Keane Sr. and his son Brian, was sold for $854 million in June to Caritor Inc., a smaller San Ramon, Calif., outsourcing company backed by the private equity firm Citicorp Venture Capital International.

The combined company took the name Keane, the better known brand, and designated Boston as the base for its US operations. The bulk of Caritor's operations and employees are in India.

When the acquisition agreement was disclosed in February, Marv Mouchawar, executive vice president for Caritor, said Keane's operations in the Boston area - which employ 600 people, including 350 at its Charlestown headquarters - "will grow as the market demands."

Last month, however, Keane filed a notice with the state's Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development indicating that it plans to eliminate 92 jobs in Boston between Sept. 30 and March 31. The so-called WARN notice was required by the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification law.

Hugh Burnham, a New York spokesman for Keane, said the company's new owners would not discuss their planned job cuts.

But in a letter to Kenneth Messina, statewide rapid response manager for the Massachusetts Division of Career Services, an arm of the labor and workforce office, Russell J. Campanello, the Keane senior vice president for human resources, wrote that Keane "will be conducting a mass layoff, which will include corporate and support functions. It is currently expected that the layoffs will be permanent."

The letter gave no reason for the cutback. It noted that Keane employees aren't represented by a union and have no bumping rights.

Linnea Walsh, spokeswoman for the labor and workforce office, said the state's rapid response team has been holding on-site information sessions for Keane employees notified of job cuts to help them apply for unemployment insurance benefits.

"We will also be looking to connect these workers to employment opportunities at other companies in need of people with similar skill sets," she said.

Keane had a round of cuts in June and July, after the Caritor acquisition took effect. It idled a small number of executives, including Kirk E. Arnold, who had been hired in January as chief executive, and chief financial officer John J. Leahy, who had served as interim chief executive for the previous seven months.

Leahy had taken over when Brian Keane resigned as chief executive on May 10, 2006, after two female employees accused him of harassment. Keane denied the allegations but admitted exercising "poor judgment" in his personal conduct.

The company paid $1.14 million to settle one complaint and an undisclosed sum to settle the other.

Richard S. Garnick, a senior Keane executive many had expected to succeed Brian Keane, was fired last September for travel-expense violations and unauthorized communications.

Garnick denied engaging in any improper conduct and sued the company, alleging breach of contract and defamation. The parties settled in June for an undisclosed sum.

Robert Weisman can be reached at weisman@globe.com.