Associated Press
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Polaroid Corp. yesterday said it would lay off 950 workers, or about 11 percent of its global work force, in an effort to save $60 million annually.
About half the layoffs will occur in Massachusetts, with the rest "spread throughout the world,'' said Polaroid spokesman Skip Colcord.
Earlier this month, the company suspended a 15-cents-per-share dividend on its common stock for the first quarter. Last quarter, Polaroid reported a loss of $5.9 million and warned that a slowing economy would continue to hurt it at least through the first half of the year.
Polaroid said it expects to record a pre-tax charge of $90 million in the first quarter of 2001 related to its restructuring plan.
"We are taking aggressive structural and financial steps to make Polaroid more competitive and to take a quantum leap into the important digital marketplace,'' chairman and CEO Gary T. DiCamillo said in a statement.
For the year, the company reported net earnings of $37.7 million on revenues of $1.9 billion, compared with earnings of $8.7 million on sales of $2 billion in 1999.
The company makes instant cameras and films; digital imaging hardware, software and media; secure identification systems; and sunglasses.
[back to top] |
