Well, unfortunately for some of Palm's employees, Palm has decided to make some cuts. It's been less than two
weeks since Palm announced plans to sell a stake in the company to
Elevation Partners. Elevation Partners is pouring $325 million into
Palm, while at the same time, Palm plans to borrow another $400 million
and return more than $900 million in cash to its shareholders. Now
that's a LOT of money moving around!
Palm employees were still in the process of being notified of the
cuts Thursday afternoon. Some of those cuts are being made immediately
and others will take longer to implement, Palm's spokesman Jim
Christensen told News.com:
It's a small percentage of our work force," Christensen told
News.com, adding that Palm still has openings in some areas. The bulk of
the jobs being eliminated are in the U.S. and in Palm's development
ranks, though there are some cuts across the company, he said.
According to Christensen, the cuts aren't about cost-cutting, but
it's about restructuring or reorganizing Palm's team to increase the
direct project accountability. In Christensen's words, it's about
"eliminating some of the hierarchy."
It's been a busy month for Palm corporate news. They avoided a total
buyout in favor of some investment and new board members. They announced
their new product, the Foleo. They even, for those that were paying
attention, rolled out (the first version of) their new Linunx OS on the
Foleo. Before all this has sunk in, now some of their employees are
getting the axe. Stay tuned for what other developments come about with
Palm.
