Intel plans major layoffs this month as PC sales nosedive: Report

Chip-maker Intel is reportedly planning job cuts that can run in thousands, especially hitting its sales and marketing teams, as consumer PC sales nosedive globally.

Bloomberg reported on Wednesday that the layoffs will affect nearly 20 per cent of team members at its hit sales and marketing teams.

The cuts will be announced "as early as this month," around the same time as Intel's third-quarter earnings report on October 27, according to the report.

The company currently has 113,700 employees globally.

Intel was yet to comment on the report.

Worldwide PC shipments totalled 68 million units in the third quarter of 2022, a huge 19.5 per cent decrease from the third quarter of 2021, according to Gartner.

This is the steepest market decline since Gartner began tracking the PC market in the mid-1990s and the fourth consecutive quarter of year-over-year decline.

"This quarter's results could mark a historic slowdown for the PC market. While supply chain disruptions have finally eased, high inventory has now become a major issue given weak PC demand in both the consumer and business markets," said Mikako Kitagawa, Director Analyst at Gartner.

Chip-maker Intel also suffered a 25 per cent decline in consumer chip sales in the second quarter (Q2), along with revenue of $15.3 billion, down 22 per cent year over year (YoY).

Its profits nosedived as it lost half a billion dollars in the April-June period -- a 109 per cent decline in profit from the $5.1 billion it saw in Q2 last year.

Company CEO Pat Gelsinger said that the results "were below the standards we have set for the company and our shareholders".

"We must and will do better. The sudden and rapid decline in economic activity was the largest driver, but the shortfall also reflects our own execution issues," Gelsinger had said in a statement.

Intel revised its full-year revenue guidance from $65 billion to $68 billion.

Dave Zinsner, Intel's chief financial officer, had said that "We expect Q2 and Q3 to be the financial bottom for the company".

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