On June 29, 2001, Agere Systems announced 4,000 additional job cuts and said it planned to close its wafer fabrication plant in Tres Cantos, near Madrid, by year-end while seeking a buyer for the site. The company linked the move to a deteriorating market and falling demand; it said about 1,000 of the planned cuts would stem from the Madrid fab closure. The announcement described a plan, not a confirmed final outcome for the facility.
What Agere announced on June 29, 2001
Agere said it would eliminate 4,000 more positions and close its Madrid-area wafer fab by the end of 2001, while trying to sell the plant. The company also planned to rationalize underused manufacturing capacity in Orlando and Pennsylvania and consolidate satellite manufacturing sites and leased corporate offices. These details were reported by EE Times on June 29, 2001.
EE Times reported that about 1,000 of the 4,000 new cuts were connected to the Madrid closure. Agere had 18,500 employees at the end of March 2001, and the two rounds of cuts announced that year were then expected to reduce headcount by 32% from that level. Those were figures reported at the time, not independently audited final job-loss totals.
Why the Madrid fab was targeted
Agere president and CEO John T. Dickson described the changing market this way: “We built our business to serve a growing market, which is instead deteriorating.” The company said demand for products made at the fab had declined faster than expected. It reported that the facility was operating at less than one-fourth of capacity.
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The Tres Cantos site made networking and communications devices using 0.3-, 0.35-, and 0.5-micron CMOS processes. A contemporaneous Spanish report also connected the planned closure to falling demand for microprocessors for PCs and telecommunications systems (El Economista, June 2007). The announcement framed the issue as demand and underused capacity at this facility; it does not establish a broader industry judgment about those process technologies.
Expected savings and restructuring costs
Agere said the wider restructuring was expected to generate $520 million in annual pretax savings and incur up to $900 million in total restructuring charges. It expected to record $725 million in the fiscal quarter ending June 30, 2001. These were company estimates reported by EE Times, not verified final savings or costs.
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What is known about the outcome
Agere’s fiscal 2006 Form 10-K says its first restructuring program began in fiscal 2001 in response to significant revenue declines and was substantially complete by December 31, 2004. That retrospective statement concerns the broader restructuring program; it does not verify whether the Madrid plant was sold, when it ultimately closed, or what later happened to the site. The June 2001 announcement establishes the intended year-end closure and effort to find a buyer, but not the facility’s final disposition.
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