Tuesday, January 31, 2023

Intel -- With A New Twist -- Aimed At Avoiding More Layoffs...?


I cannot say that I've ever seen this -- at a mega cap '34 Act reporting company -- and certainly not in the tech sector.

Once a high flier, Intel tonight (as its chip-making business continues to struggle, mightily) is reportedly cutting the higher executive officers' salaries by ten per cent, and the CEO is taking a 25% pay cut (but bonuses will still be paid -- on the lowered figures), while lower-earning employees will see no pay cuts (or layoffs, near term, it is hoped).

The unstated goal is to try to put aside cash for a turn-around, while not just randomly tossing bodies overboard. Yep -- that IS a new(-ish) idea:
. . .Hourly employees aren’t getting a pay cut and annual bonuses will remain. But Intel is cutting other incentives for all employees effective immediately.

It has suspended merit raises for all employees, suspended quarterly profit-sharing bonuses and employee recognition programs, and cut 401(k) retirement plan matching payments by half, to 2.5%. . . .

[In Q4 2022] Intel’s outlook. . . continued to darken. The company reported Thursday that sales were down 32% last quarter, and it expects a 40% drop in revenue this quarter compared to the same period a year ago. . . .


I'll keep an optimistic thought, that this will be enough to right the ship. But along with other austerity measures introduced in mid-2022, the goal is to save around $3 billion a year. That alone -- on some ~130,000 employees, overall -- means the top 10% of earners at HQ. . . were likely pretty wildly over-compensated in 2021 and prior. [Damn -- the CEO above negotiated an over $260 million re-entry package, when he returned to Intel in 2021, after almost 15 years at other places. He was the primary architect of the old intel 486 line of chips, in the late 1980s, in his first stint at the company. Now you know.]

नमस्ते

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