Apple today announced that it will be laying off 2,700 employees and will take a charge of $155 million this quarter. An additional 1400 contract employees are also getting the axe today. The company is also throwing in the towel on technologies that are not key to its success, including AIX server software and a video conferencing program. Apple will also stop supporting OpenDoc, the widely touted but little-used component software architecture. The future of the Newton and Claris divisions is still undecided.
"The right strategy is not to chase market share," Apple CEO Gil Amelio said. "The right strategy is to come out with great products." Many people are calling for Amelio's ouster: since the self-described turnaround king took over at Apple, the company has lost almost a billion dollars.
"Why would I want to stand aside when we're right at the cusp of turning this thing around?" Amelio asked. "I think what this company needs is a period of focus and stability and going forward, that's what I intend to do."
One interesting note: the layoffs are far lower than many expected. As of yesterday, most news organizations were reporting that Apple was expected to layoff 45% of their workforce, or almost 6,000 people. On the other hand, over 4,000 employees left Apple on their own in the past year
