Siemens IT Solutions to axe 4,200 jobs worldwide

19 Mar 2010

Siemens AG, Europe's largest engineering conglomerate, said yesterday that will cut 4,200 jobs worldwide at its information technology unit as part of its plan to reorganise its IT business.

As part of the reorganisation plan, Munich, Germany-based Siemens will eliminate 4,200 of about 35,000 jobs worldwide by 2011. About 2,000 of the jobs will go in Germany.

In making the job reductions, Siemens said that it intends to exhaust all possibilities for voluntary measures and to implement the cutbacks in as socially compatible a way as possible and start consultations with employees immediately.

The company is also planning to make additional investments of more than €500 million by 2012 as it orients its Siemens IT Solutions and Services (SIS) towards solution areas, said the company in a statement.

Siemens wants the solutions business to form the second pillar alongside its IT outsourcing business of the SIS.

To date, the IT division has comprised seven business units. ''The combination of IT outsourcing and specific industry solutions makes SIS an excellent partner for comprehensive IT consulting and IT management and can build on the specific industry and software know-how of the Siemens Sectors, which are world-leaders in their businesses,'' said Siemens CFO Joe Kaeser. ''We want to put SIS on a solid long-term foundation,'' he added.