Siemens / To Cut 4,700 More at Osram

Siemens AG (SIE) announced plans to eliminate an additional 4,700 jobs at its Osram lighting subsidiary to reap 1 billion euros ($1.3 billion) in cost savings as the market for traditional light bulbs shrinks.

The job cuts, which are focused primarily outside Germany, come on top of 1,900 positions that Osram already reduced in fiscal 2012, the company said today in a statement. In total, the job losses at Osram will amount to about 7,300 positions. The measures will cost a “mid-three digit million figure” through 2014, with the savings realized in full a year later.

The job cuts, which are focused primarily outside Germany, come on top of 1,900 positions that Osram already reduced in fiscal 2012, the company said today in a statement. In total, Photographer: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg

Siemens said this week that it would spin off Osram next year and retain about a fifth of the company, after realizing that investments to keep pace in the lighting market would be too great for the engineering company to shoulder. Siemens trails Royal Philips (PHIA) Electronics NV in the market for lighting, which is tilting toward LED technology based on semiconductors.

“Personnel increases in the future fields will only partially compensate for the change in the traditional businesses,” Osram Chief Executive Officer Wolfgang Dehen said in the release. Osram had about 39,000 employees as of Sept. 30.

The majority of positions will be lost by selling factories abroad, mainly smaller plants or facilities making products that have reached the end of their life cycle, Osram said. In Germany, three sites will be affected, including in Berlin and Munich, where Siemens is based…

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via Siemens to Cut 4,700 More Lighting Jobs to Save $1.3 Bln – Bloomberg.