60 Reportedly Laid Off at Emulex Headquarters

Hurt by a sluggish economy and lower computer industry sales, Emulex Corp. laid off 60 employees at its headquarters last week, according to a career counselor brought in to help ex-employees seek employment elsewhere.

Denise L. Greenstein, a Laguna Hills career management counselor, said she was hired by Emulex to provide career transition seminars to employees who were laid off Oct. 15 and that she began conducting the seminars two days later. Greenstein said 30 of those laid off from the Costa Mesa computer components maker have signed up for her workshop. Emulex executives told her that the staffing reductions are taking place “across the board,” she said.

Ernie Hiltbruner, Emulex vice president of worldwide operations, would not comment on the issue. JoAnne Martz, a corporate spokeswoman, said the company is expected to announce first-quarter earnings Thursday, after the market closes. Any layoff announcements would not be made before then, she said.

Emulex had fiscal 1991 profit of $7.8 million, or 73 cents per share, contrasted with a $1-million loss, or 10 cents per share, in the previous year. Revenue for the 12 months ended June 30 increased 27% to $152.9 million from $120.5 million.

A number of those terminated were senior executives, including those in the company’s engineering, human resources, sales and accounts payable departments, according to former Emulex employees attending the seminar Tuesday. Vickie Hart, an Emulex accounts payable supervisor who was laid off, said employees were offered severance payments based on their length of service with the company.

Some former employees said that as many as 100 additional workers in Emulex’s operations worldwide may have been laid off since last week.

“From what I heard, about 90% of the departments in Emulex worldwide (operations) got hit,” said Gidget Hainley, a collections representative who was dismissed last week.

Emulex makes a line of mass-storage products for the Digital Equipment Corp. minicomputer market, as well as equipment that links personal computers together electronically and with other computer peripheral equipment.

This is the second major layoff this year for Emulex, which dismissed 60 employees in July when it relocated its circuit board manufacturing facility to Puerto Rico in a cost-reduction move. In late August, the company had about 540 of its 790 employees located in Orange County.

Earlier this month, Emulex filed a countersuit against Digital Equipment, alleging that the Maynard, Mass.-based computer company is engaging in unfair business practices to monopolize a segment of the computer-storage industry. This move was in response to a patent infringement lawsuit filed in August by Digital Equipment against Emulex and other U.S. computer peripheral manufacturers.