Manugistics Gives Employees Another Involuntary Vacation

For the second time in as many months, supply-chain software maker Manugistics plans to shut down its offices for a week and force employees to take unpaid vacation.

A spokesperson for the Rockville, Md.-based company confirmed Monday that about 1,000 U.S. employees will take four days of unpaid vacation in September following Labor Day. Manugistics, along with other tech companies such as Sun Microsystems SUNW and Hewlett-PackardHPQ, imposed a similar shutdown during the week of the July 4 holiday.

The Manugistics spokesperson said the latest round of unpaid vacation days is part of Manugistics' ongoing efforts to align expenses with expected revenue. The shutdown, following layoffs of 12% of Manugistics staff, will occur at the beginning of the company's fiscal third quarter.

Along with other supply-chain software makers, such as i2 Technologies ITWO and JDA Software JDAS, Manugistics has been reeling from both stiffer competition among enterprise software makers and customers' aversion to large deals. Manugistics, whose quarter is one-month ahead of its peers, kicked off a dismal earnings season by preannouncing disappointing first quarter results in June.

Shares of Manugistics fell 3 cents, or 0.9%, to close at $3.38 Monday. Shares declined to $3.32 in after-hours trading.