CalComp Technology Plans to Lay Off 235
CalComp Technology Inc., a maker of high-performance computer equipment, said Monday that it will lay off 235 employees and sell its Anaheim headquarters as part of a consolidation following the company’s acquisition of a Northern California firm.
About 75% of the job cuts will take place in Orange County, where CalComp employs about 400, said Chief Executive Gary Long. The company, which has 1,100 employees worldwide, will remain based in Orange County, he added.
Long said the company is eliminating manufacturing and assembly positions as well as some engineering positions. The layoffs, which will result in a one-time charge of $7 million, partly reflect the transfer of work to Topaz Technologies Inc., a Sunnyvale-based company that CalComp has acquired.
CalComp paid about $4.3 million for Topaz, including $750,000 in cash and 1.5 million shares of CalComp stock. Lockheed Martin Corp.’s 90% stake in CalComp has been reduced slightly as a result of the deal.
CalComp is a maker of plotters, high-performance printers and other computer equipment used in graphic design. Topaz has developed an ink-jet printing technology that CalComp will adopt, Long said.
The acquisition, combined with a “realignment of our operations strategy, reflects a fundamental change in the way we will conduct our business,” said Long. CalComp, which became a publicly traded company this year, reported a loss of $32.7 million on sales of $168.4 million for the first nine months of 1996.
The company also plans to sell its 27-acre campus in Anaheim and look for office space elsewhere in the county as part of a cost-cutting effort. “The [Anaheim] campus could house 1,100 employees and we have about 400 there now,” said John Millerick, chief financial officer. “It makes clear economic sense to vacate this facility.”
CalComp made the first of its job cuts Monday, when the company laid off about 50 workers, said Long, who added that the layoffs will be complete by the end of the first quarter in 1997.
