Seagate to Cut 6% of Global Staff

By Jordan Robertson San Jose, Calif. -- Seagate Technology (STX Quote) is cutting thousands of jobs and slashing some employees' salaries by as much as 25 percent, the company said Wednesday, a surprise move coming just two days after Seagate changed chief executives and announced it was cutting 800 U.S.-based workers.

The Scotts Valley, Calif.-based company, which is suffering because sluggish tech spending has reduced demand for the computers that use Seagate's hard drives, said in a regulatory filing that 2,950 people will lose their jobs, 6 percent of its global work force of 53,000.

Seagate said the figure includes the 800 U.S.-based workers whose job cuts were announced earlier this week -- which represented 10 percent of the company's U.S. work force.

The filing Wednesday with the Securities and Exchange Commission did not explain why the layoffs, which were approved by the board on Jan. 11, were announced on different days. The layoffs are expected to be mostly complete by the end of March, and will result in a $90 million pretax charge for severance and other expenses.

The firings and salary cuts are expected to save a total of $210 million a year, Seagate said.

The entire C-suite will see their salaries chopped, as will some members of the rank-and-file.

For the CEO and other top executives, their salaries will be reduced by 25 percent; for senior vice presidents and vice presidents, their pay will fall 20 percent and 15 percent, respectively; and pay cuts of 10 percent are coming for some members of Seagate's other management, sales, supervisory and "professional" positions.