Agilent Technologies, which has an Irish workforce of 120, said it will lay off 4,000 workers, or 9% of its staff, to cut costs.
Agilent Technologies Inc said it posted a loss of $109m, beating analyst estimates. Those losses stood in stark contrast to the profit of $158m, or 34 cents a share, the company reported last year.`
Kevin Sweeney, Managing Director of Agilent Ireland said 'the Irish operations will not be affected'.
The Hewlett-Packard spin-off, which took over that venerable Silicon Valley's industrial electronics business, warned it expects further losses of 50 to 70 cents per share in the next quarter.
'The measures to date have had a positive impact, but the business environment in our key industries continued to deteriorate this quarter,' said Agilent CEO Ned Barnholt in a statement. 'The outlook going forward is for a slow and gradual recovery.'
Despite the company's losses, Barnholt said it continued to generate positive operating cash flow and was optimistic that by the end of August it will have 'almost no debt'.
