Adobe Layoffs

Adobe Systems, known for its Photoshop editing programme and Acrobat document software, announced that it was cutting some 680 jobs worldwide, about nine percent of its workforce.

Adobe, in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), said it would incur between $65 million and $71 million in restructuring charges because of the layoffs.

Adobe said the jobs being cut only involve employees who were with the San Jose, California-based company ahead of its October acquisition of Web analytics firm Omniture Inc.

Adobe, which employed 7,564 people worldwide at the end of August, also produces the Flash and Shockwave software used in many games and Internet applications.

Adobe shares were trading 0.14 percent higher at 36.65 dollars in after-hours electronic trading in New York.

 

Adobe freezes pay, cuts variable

Adobe Inc, the world’s biggest maker of graphic-design software, will freeze pay this year as the recession crimps sales, said Chief Financial Officer Mark Garrett. “Clearly, we aren’t going to have salary increases,” he said in an interview. “The bonus plans and variable compensation plans will pay out less. We have set ourselves up for what we think we need to do -- from a costs perspective -- for the rest of this year.”

Adobe also has cut about 8 per cent of its workforce, curbed travel and reduced its use of contractors. While US demand is now steady, overseas sales may still be dropping, Garrett said. That revenue accounted for almost 60 per cent of Adobe’s total last year.