Agilent announces 1,300 layoffs (SJ Mercury News)

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

Posted on Mon, Aug. 15, 2005

Agilent announces 1,300 layoffs

RESTRUCTURING TO FOCUS CORE COMPANY

By Dean Takahashi

Mercury News

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/breaking_news/12389313.htm

Agilent Technologies said Monday it is taking a series of actions -- including laying off 1,300 employees -- as part of a restructuring aimed at transforming the conglomerate into a more focused company in the wake of its agreement to sell its chip division for $2.6 billion.

An investment group led by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Silver Lake Partners agreed to pay $2.6 billion in cash to buy Agilent's Semiconductor Products Group. The new company, which will be based in San Jose and headed by its current chief Dick Chang, will be the largest private semiconductor company in the world.

In other moves, Agilent is selling its stake in Lumileds Lighting to its partner Philips Electronics for $950 million plus repayment of $50 million in debt held by Lumileds. And it plans to spin off its chip testing equipment business in 2006 as a separate company.

``This is all about becoming a more focused company,'' said Bill Sullivan, chief executiveof Agilent.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

1. think of the $$ they save by not driving to work

Any more of this Bush Economy, and I think we will be talking revolution.

[Megahurtz]

3. Think of what they save by

packing it all up in their vehicles and living in them!:sarcasm:

On the serious note, I am seeing more and more of this lately.:(

[TheCowsCameHome]

2. Bush says "So what, I just got y'all 200,000 new jobs last month"

"And I wasn't even tryin" "You folks flip a mean burger", he went on to say before a crowd of assembled right-wing whackos.

Damn, he's good.

[barb162]

5. Once I heard Rush Limbaugh talk

about how all jobs are good and noone should complain about burger-flipping, etc. A job is a job is a job. Some liberal had called in about the rotten low-pay jobs the Bush economy was creating. Rush of course did not go into the little problem of how someone with a MS, 20 yrs. experience and a 6 figure income was now going to survive flipping burgers. Details, details.

[TahitiNut]

4. Another needle in the valley's housing bubble.

I gotta wonder when that bubble will collapse.

[barb162]

6. I keep thinking the same thing but have you ever

noticed that will all the layoffs the last few years the prices keep skyrocketing there? I don't get it

[SoCalDem]

8. Easy.. the people with ALL the money are buying up the houses

from the people who HAVE to sell in a hurry...then they flip the houses to someone who's in a hurry to buy a house..Or they sit on them and rent them out for enough to cover the payments.. These are probably the "wink wink" loans for interest only anyway..

The sad thing is.. it's all a pyramid scheme, and for every flip.. there's a FLOP coming up..

I just hope and pray that the cycle is back up when we have to liquidate our house in about 5 years when my husband retires. If not we will be 3 for 3..

This is our 3rd house and we have bought EVERY one in a seller's market..and when we had to sell the other two (due to imminent moves) we sold in a buyer's market :cry:

[barb162]

9. A relative was laid off from HP about a year ago

and he lives around PAlo Alto. Luckily his daughter was already out of college and his house was paid off. Also his wife came into a very nice inheritance last year. So even though he is not working right now, he isn't hurting either and if he sells his house in this market, he will get a lot of gravy. He paid 150000 for it, added a second floor and I think it would go for about a million now.

[SoCalDem]

10. Our crappy house cost us $81K in 1982

and it recently appraised for $299K.. We are PRAYING for a decent return so when my husband retires, we can pay cash for a nice doublewide on a patch of dirt somewhere.. We will only need one car then (we haven't had a car payment in about 20 years) and no housepayment. We could be Ok on my measly pension, his 401K and SS.. But if we get the shaft on our house, we may have to stay behind, set up in the garage and be the line-in help :scared:

[barb162]

11. I know what you mean.

We are thinking of selling the house we are in and moving to a way smaller place in case the market turns. I think the bubble is overstated and MSM likes to play it up. I do think however it is happening in certain markets. The "bubble" will burst when the interest rates go up and the people with the "funny" mortgages can't swing it anymore. But I think most people still have fixed rate mortgages and they will probably be okay.

There was a little story in Parade magazine yesterday (we get it with our local paper as an insert) and it was on what the same amount of money gets you across the country. I think the amount was 140,000. Well in Omaha, NE and many other states that gets you a whole lot of house. My area is expensive and I was amazed. But I think about retirement too, preserving that money and trying to get by. It means moving out of expensive areas, not spending on anything but basics, etc. I bet you will be able to swing it. I have a measly pension too that I won't be able to collect on till I hit 65 but I think it will pay for the groceries. Pensions are almost thing of the past. The next generation will be very jealous of us.

[SoCalDem]

12. Mine will be about $320 a month.. (what a joke)

and my husband's SS looks like it will be about 2K a month.. We have a little savings,and our 401K might be worth a little by then.. It will be tight, but without a housepayment we should manage.. (and then there's the rich son we have:loveya:..he may toss a few crumbs..)

[barb162]

13. Mine will be 450 a month. If I would have stayed at that place

I would be retiring in a few years at 2/3 of my salary. I had a horrible sex harrassment problem at that place and I quit after 13 years. In financial terms it was the dumbest thing I ever did but it saved what little was left of my sanity. I was never able to find another job after that with a pension without moving out of state and I was not going to move.

There are so many things that can happen. It's funny how things turn out, ya' know? I am hoping the dollar does not dive or that there is not another big terror attack because then this country would go down into a very severe recession I think. Then Bush might succeed in using that to go after SS, Medicare, etc, bigtime. And I think we are all counting on that. I have two good girlfriends whose husbands have been out of work for a few years and they are both on pins and needles. Very afraid. They are just holding things together after having lived very well for many years. The one had a combined family 200,000 income and now makes about 30,000 as she and he both lost their good jobs and she was only able to get this crap job she has now. SHe is very angry that she will have to work till the day she dies as she puts it.

I am already living tight in preparation; growing peaches, tomatos, apples, only buying shoes when I wear out shoes (versus the way I used to buy Italian shoes at the drop of a hat), watching the grocery ads, etc. Since I have enough clothes to last me a hundred years I am also not buying any of those.I used to live somewhat high but the last few years, it is amazing how I can just easily pass up the the latest trends. I buy food and get one magazine. That's it. If I want a recording or read a book, I get it at the library. I have basically stopped discretionary spending except I am still going to one opera this coming season (versus I always did season tickets). I even reuse aluminum foil and all those cheap hints people put up on the web!

[SoCalDem]

7. Yep.. our economy is BOOMING..unfortunately

the BOOMS are from "insurgent unemployment BOMBS".:(