STMicro Lays Off 4,500 Employees

by Jordan Yerman | January 29, 2009 at 07:00 am

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STMicroelectronics, Europe's largest chipmaker, will lay off 4,500 employees.

This follows a Q4 2008 net loss of $366 million for the Swiss-based company, as the ongoing recession forces consumers to forego new purchases of computers and other chip-based hardware.

The results for the European firm were released on Tuesday. The fourth quarter of the previous year saw a net income of $20 million. It is not yet known how many of the layoffs will take place in the UK--STMicro employs just over 430 employees in the UK, with a sales office in Marlow and research and development sites in Bristol, Edinburgh, Fleet and Daventry.

The chipmaker shut its plants in Italy over the Christmas period, affecting about 8,000 workers, after saying in November that it would cut output to adjust to lower demand and reduce sourcing from third-party contractors. It will spend $500 million on new plants and equipment, down 50 percent from 2008.