Intel To Cut Up To 12,000 Jobs Globally

Santa Clara: American multinational technology company Intel has said that it would cut up to 12,000 jobs globally, or 11 percent of its workforce, as it refocuses its business towards making microchips and away from the declining personal computer industry it helped found.

Many new tech users around the world turn to mobile phones for their computing needs, and corporations increasingly rely on big machines rather than desktop models to run their businesses. Global personal computer shipments fell by 11.5 percent in the first quarter, tech research company International Data Corporation, (IDC) said on Monday.

Intel, the world’s largest chipmaker, lowered its revenue forecast for this year. It now expects revenue to rise in mid-single digits, down from its previous forecast of mid to high-single digits.

Intel, based in Santa Clara, California, since the late 1980s provided the calculating engines for a PC market that kept expanding. The chip maker, along with partner Microsoft, were able to cream off the vast majority of profits from that growth.

But neither Intel nor Microsoft gained a foothold in the mobile market, which was transformed after Apple Inc. introduced the iPhone in 2007.

Intel said in a statement the job cuts would be carried out by mid-2017 and the restructuring would “accelerate its evolution from a PC company to one that powers the cloud and billions of smart, connected computing devices.”

Sales of products for the Data Centre Division and the Internet of Things group accounted for 40 percent of revenue and the majority of operating profit, it added.