MARCH 30, 2023 — 480 LAYOFFS
The company has announced plans to reduce its workforce by 1%, or an additional 480 employees, in another round of layoffs scheduled to occur in June 2023.
“On March 29, 2023, Seagate Technology Holdings plc (the “Company”) committed to an expansion of the October 2022 Restructuring Plan (the “Plan”) to extend its previously announced workforce reduction by approximately 480 employees, or 1% of the global headcount. These reductions span multiple functions and locations throughout the Company and include aligning its Lyve Edge-to-Cloud Mass Storage Platform business plan to near-term market conditions and reducing Lyve Cloud investment levels in the near-term while continuing to support the Company’s long-term business strategy. The expanded Plan is expected to result in further cost savings to better navigate the current macroeconomic challenges.”
NOVEMBER 16, 2022 — 84 LAYOFFS IN FREEMONT, CALIFORNIA
Seagate has decided to lay off 84 employees at the company’s product design center in Freemont, California.
OCTOBER 26, 2022 — RESTRUCTURING WITH 3,000 EMPLOYEES AT RISK
Seagate has announced a restructuring plan aimed at reducing costs amid slowing demand that will affect 3,000 jobs.
According to Chief Executive Officer Dave Mosley, “Global economic uncertainties and broad-based customer inventory corrections worsened in the latter stages of the September quarter, and these dynamics are reflected in both near-term industry demand and Seagate’s financial performance. We have taken quick and decisive actions to respond to current market conditions and enhance long-term profitability, including adjusting our production output and annual capital expenditure plans.”
“Mosley said Seagate’s job cuts, which amount to about 7.5% of total employees, would lead to annualized savings of about $110 million once they were fully realized, in the fiscal third quarter of 2023.”
AUGUST 21, 2022 — UNDERGROUND LAYOFFS?
According to employees, many of whom may have signed a non-disclosure agreement to obtain separation benefits, the company has apparently finished another round of layoffs without public reporting and media announcements.
By spreading layoffs across a multi-state workforce or staging separations a company can avoid filing WARN notices that trigger media releases.
JUNE 8, 2020 — 500 LAYOFFS COMPANY-WIDE, MINNESOTA CONSOLIDATIONS
The company has laid off 500 employees company-wide as they continue to execute a cost-cutting program through the first quarter in fiscal 2021.
According to a company spokesperson, the layoffs are “intended to drive additional operational efficiencies and better position the company to capitalize on secular growth opportunities driven by increasing demand for mass capacity storage and data management from endpoints to edge to core.”
The company also plans to consolidate its facilities in Minnesota to a single location in order to “continue to align resources to better support future growth prospects.”
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On July 11, 2016, the headline in a local business journal read, “Seagate soars as it boosts job-cutting plan fourfold, gives improved outlook.” Seagate Technology CEO Stephen Luczo announced that the company was planning to cut 6,500 jobs or about 14 percent of its workforce.
Fast forward to July 25, 2017, and we find an announcement in the same business journal that Seagate Technology CEO Stephen Luczo is stepping down as the company’s reported earnings significantly missed Wall Street expectations. As an aside, the company announced that it would cut 600 jobs. Luczo will be retaining his position as Seagate’s Chairman.
Luczo explained in the company’s press release, "It has been an honor and a privilege for me to have served as Seagate's CEO in 16 of the last 20 years. I am grateful to our amazing employees, customers, suppliers, and shareholders. I am excited about our future and I look forward to working with Dave in my new role as executive chairman at Seagate." In the same release, COO Dave Mosley who will replace Luczo as Seagate’s CEO, said, "I am honored to lead Seagate into the next era of leadership in the storage technology market and I am excited about the opportunities ahead for the Company. Seagate has a critical role in storing and securing the world's data and I am proud of our tremendous global employee organization that works every day to support that effort.”
The reason given for the reduction-in-force was, “drop in sales and profit on higher prices for memory chips, and fluctuations in demand for its products.”
People are losing their jobs as economic conditions change and executives seek to restore profitability and regain Wall Street’s favor by reducing personnel costs.
Change is coming. There will always be a tomorrow, no matter how much you may try to ignore it. There are no guarantees in life or promises for a bright future. Just because something bad hasn't happened yet, doesn't mean it won't. It can happen to anyone, anytime, anywhere. No one is guaranteed to wake up tomorrow and still have a job by evening. Are you now wondering, Am I Next?
