Intel cutting up to 1,000 jobs in New Mexico

Advertisement (Why?)

Intel has warned the workers at its Fab 11 plant in Rio Rancho, New Mexico, that it could lay off as many as 1,000 of the 1,500 employees when it stops producing flash memory chips at the outdated fabrication plant this August. The company invited those workers to seek another job at Intel or take a severance package including job search training. Intel will continue to sell 135nm flash chips made at other factories, but sees rising demand for memory chips made with smaller, more efficient components, such as the 90nm chips already in production and 65nm chips Intel is beginning to sample. The company also showed prototypes last month of PRAM (phase-change RAM) technology, a potential long-term replacement for both flash memory and DRAM.

Intel has been losing money for years on its flash drives – the division lost $283 million on revenue of $469 million during the first quarter of 2007, compared to a loss of $125 million on revenue of $544 million a year earlier. "We've been working hard to get the flash business profitable. So we made the decision to curtail production of our 135 nanometer products. This relates to bringing our costs under control because there is not sufficient demand to support that production," said Intel spokesman Chuck Mulloy.

News source: InfoWorld

#1 raskren on 02 May 2007 - 20:54

I lived close to Rio Rancho when Fab 11 opened. The city made massive infrastructure improvements and even built schools due to the influx of people expected to arrive.

#2 Gamerhomie on 02 May 2007 - 21:18

That sucks for Intel, but at least the employees are being compensated in a way. It's not like they just get the boot.

(1 reply) #3 Croquant on 02 May 2007 - 21:22

At least they warned their workers of impending layoffs. I could name a few other companies that just announce layoffs out of the blue and throw people out of work the next day.

#3.1 Justin- on 02 May 2007 - 21:48

Intel has always been pretty good and generous with how they lay off people.

#4 +ECEGatorTuro on 03 May 2007 - 00:37

Intel almost always allows employees to re-deploy to other sites or business groups during an event such as this one. Most of these people will get the opportunity to find another job within the company.

Commenting has either been disabled on this article or you are not logged in. Click here to login or register, its free!

Note: Anonymous commenting is disabled in order to keep the quality of responses to a high standard.

Neowin.net