Although the semiconductor market has been making an unexpectedly rapid recovery, life has not yet returned to normal at Applied Materials Inc. (Nasdaq: AMAT). The company, one of the world's largest manufacturers of equipment for the semiconductor industry, will reportedly cut its workforce by 1,000-1,200 employees worldwide, including 100-200 in Israel.
Barclays Capital analyst C.J. Muse claims that Applied Materials will announce new restructuring measures when it publishes its financial report for the third quarter of 2009 tomorrow. He says that these measures will include a 7-8% cut in the company's workforce, amounting to 1,000-1,200 employees, and that most of the cuts will be in the solar energy division, which will lose up to a fifth of its workforce. Deep cuts will also be made in the quality testing and control division, most of which is handled by Applied Materials Israel Ltd.
Applied Materials first announced in August that it was planning to restructure, but has not provided any numbers about layoffs.
Applied Materials Israel currently has about 1,000 employees after firing 200 employees in two rounds of layoffs in the past two years.
Applied Materials Israel was established in 1997 on the basis of Opal and Orbot Instruments, which Applied Materials acquired for $280 million. Its CEO is Ronen Ben-Zion.
Analysts expect Applied Materials to report $1.31 billion revenue for the third quarter, 16% more than for the preceding quarter.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on November 10, 2009
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