Intel has frozen top management salaries and is
revamping its
stock optionspackage,reports Reuters.
While the stock options move should prove cost neutral, it is
designed to compensate those staff lower down the pecking order who
have suffered from the firm's lower stock price as a result of the
worsening industry market.
On top of their salary freeze, top level management are excluded
from the stock option deal.
Reuters says Intel plans to exchange options with an exercise
price above the stock's 52-week high, for a lesser number of new
options that have about the same "fair value" as those
surrendered.
The plan is designed to help motivate and retain employees who
have seen their stock options become a less valuable part of their
compensation package in the economic downturn.
Earlier this year, Intel announced
the closure of two chip manufacturing plants and two test
facilities, with up to 6,000 job losses expected by the end of
the year as a result.
The closures are part of plans to "align manufacturing capacity
to current market conditions", said Intel.
The older US manufacturing plants at Hillsboro, Oregon, and
Santa Clara, California, are closing, along with test facilities in
Malaysia and the Philippines.
For its full-year results posted at the turn of the year, Intel
said sales were down 2% and profits had tumbled 24%. It came as no
surprise, however, as Intel had previously issued two advance
profit warnings for the period.
Smaller rival AMD has also made job cuts. The most recent
publicly announced batch was 500 jobs slashed at the end of last
year.