Altera cutting 87 jobs

The programmable logic company estimates it will save $9 million annual with the layoffs.

By Suzanne Deffree, Managing Editor, News -- Electronic News, 8/5/2009

Altera Corp plans to eliminate approximately 87 positions from its 2,700 person workforce, according to a US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing made Tuesday.

Nearly all of the layoffs will occur in Q3, Altera said, noting that the cuts are a result of the company’s efforts to lower its overall cost structure.

The restructuring filing comes after the programmable logic company on July 14 announced Q2 revenue of $279.2 million, up 6% from Q1 and down 22% from Q2 2008. New products grew 16% sequentially in Q2, with Altera CEO John Daane attributing the gain to a more than doubling of 40-nm sales and a surge in 65-nm sales. The San Jose-based company also announced net income of $47.4 million, up from Q1 net income of $44 million but down more than 50% from net income of $98 million in Q2 2008. Financial analysts focused in on the year-over-year income fall, as well as Altera's Q3 guidance for revenue down 1% to 5% sequentially.

Altera said in the SEC filing it will incur restructuring-related charges of approximately $4 million to $5 million in the current quarter as a result of employee severance costs. The company estimated that the annualized savings from the restructuring will be approximately $9 million.

Altera did not specify in the filing what types of positions would be eliminated or from what locations.