The Alcatel roller coaster pushes the stock up and down the employees, in a loop-the-loop that includes cuts for 15 workers. The French telephony group has confirmed the plan which foresees mass layoffs all over the world. The company, which currently employs 72 people, still intends to create 5000 new jobs, bringing the number of employees to be sent home to 10. The goal is to reduce fixed costs by more than 15% between now and 2015. And the Stock Exchange seems to have appreciated this end which justifies the means, with the Alcatel-Lucent stock gaining more than one and a half percentage points at the end of the morning.
In France, 900 layoffs are expected, 10% of the workforce, and another 900 people will still be affected, both for the closure of some plants and for the outsourcing of IT services. These same employees – explains Les Echos – should be hired by the new suppliers.
In total, the cuts will affect about 15 percent of employees worldwide. The hardest hit will be the Germans, closely followed by the French.
The moment is critical for the French-American company. The layoffs – writes the Wall Street Journal – could be an attempt to slim Alcatel before potential agreements to sell the assets or the entire group to the Finns of Nokia.
