SAN DIEGO — Struggling computer seller Gateway is cutting another 1,500 jobs, or about 40 percent of its remaining workforce, only a month after a similar cut.
Thursday’s announcement came as Gateway posted its 13th loss in 14 quarters.
The jobs will be eliminated by year’s end, chief executive Wayne Inouye said. The layoffs will leave the company with about 2,000 employees, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 employees in 2000. Earlier this month, the Poway, Calif.-based company shut all 188 of its retail stores.
"We are in the midst of a far-reaching effort to simplify our business and fundamentally change our cost structure as we push toward a return to sustained profitability," Inouye said.
Gateway posted a preliminary loss of $165.5 million, or 49 cents a share, in the first quarter, compared with a loss of $200.5 million, or 62 cents a share, the same period last year. The latest period included charges of $81 million for store closures and $23 million in other restructuring expenses, related primarily to outsourcing.
Excluding the charges, Gateway posted a loss of $75 million, or 22 cents a share. Analysts polled by Thomson First Call projected a loss of 20 cents a share.
Revenue rose 2.8 percent to $868.4 million from $844.5 million.
Gateway acquired privately held eMachines Inc. last month for $290 million, but former eMachines managers have been directing their acquirer. Inouye, who engineered a turnaround at eMachines, was named CEO, replacing founder Ted Waitt, who remains Gateway chairman.
Inouye stacked his management team with eMachines executives and said he would move the company’s headquarters north to Orange County, where eMachines was based. He followed that by closing Gateway’s retail stores.
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