Seagate Defrags Workforce, Executive Team
by John Paczkowski
Posted on January 12, 2009 at 5:00 AM PT
“Terrible.” That was Seagate CEO Bill Watkins’s (at right, doing his Dr. Octopus impression) one-word description of the disk drive maker’s December sales last week–and apparently one of his final public comments as chief executive as well. This morning, Seagate (STX) said that Watkins is handing the CEO reins over to Chairman Stephen Luczo and that the two will confer over the next week to “determine what role, if any, Mr. Watkins will have at the company going forward.”
A surprising turn of events. Because as recently as Friday, it seemed very much business as usual for Watkins, who had the uniquely unpleasant task of announcing a forthcoming round of layoffs while at the Consumer Electronics Show last week. “We are going to announce another round, and we think we’ll do it in January,” he told Bloomberg on Jan. 9. “There will be restructuring, and there will be some layoffs.”
And, indeed, it appears there have been. Not only has there been an abrupt change in leadership, but according to a new filing with the SEC, Seagate plans to sack about 10 percent of its U.S. workforce as part of a restructuring plan that “will impact a broad range of departments, including research and development.” It is, of course, “being done in response to the current economic environment.”
