EMC announces restructuring, job cuts

Data storage giant EMC Corp. of Hopkinton today announced plans to cut 2,400 jobs as part of a sweeping restructuring aimed at reducing costs by $350 million in 2009 and $500 million the following year. The restructuring will affect the company's information infrastructure business, which excludes its virtualization subsidiary VMware, acquired by EMC five years ago for $635 million.

The restructuring measures will include not only the job cuts, which represent 7 percent of the total affected workforce, but also, consolidation of back office functions and some offices, reductions in layers of management, and cuts in indirect third-party expenses, according to a statement from the company.

The cuts were described in a company announcement of preliminary performance figures for the fourth quarter of 2008, in which the company said it expected to achieve record revenues of about $4 billion, up 4 percent from the same quarter in the previous year. EMC also said it expected to take a pre-tax restructuring charge of $248 million. The announcement was made after the close of markets today.

EMC has about 42,000 employees, including 9,000 in the state. Today's company release did not specify how many of the jobs to be eliminated are in Massachusetts.

To read EMC's press release, please click here.
(By Michael Warshaw, Globe staff)