3Com announces plan to cut costs, including about 1,000 jobs

Wednesday, September 10th 2003, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

MARLBORO, Mass. (AP) _ 3Com Corp. plans to cut about 1,000 jobs as it closes a plant in Ireland and hires other companies to handle manufacturing and distribution in an effort to reduce costs.

The job cuts disclosed Wednesday represent almost a third of the networking products company's work force of 3,300, the most recently reported figure listed in the company's May quarterly report.

Spokeswoman Karin Bakis declined to specify the current number of employees, saying the figure would be included in the next quarterly report, scheduled for release Sept. 18.

The company began sending layoff notices Wednesday. Bakis declined to specify details of the layoffs, but said the majority would result from the closure of the Dublin, Ireland plant.

The company plans to close its Dublin facility by the end of February.

The outsourcing of 3Com's manufacturing, distribution and other aspects of operations will take about six months. Singapore-based Flextronics and St. Petersburg, Fla.-based Jabil Circuit will provide the company's global product distribution, according to the company.

``These actions further enhance 3Com's ability to bring competitive and comprehensive networking solutions to the enterprise market,'' said 3Com president and CEO Bruce Claflin said in a statement.

As part of the restructuring, 3Com also announced plans to open a new Taiwan Design Center to design low-end, standardized volume products. The company expects the center to be operating by November 2003, and fully staffed by May 2004.