Irvine’s Datum Cuts 40 Jobs as Boom Goes Bust

Precision timing systems maker Datum Inc. dismissed 40 employees Thursday in a cost-cutting effort to offset sagging sales.

It is the second layoff this year for the Irvine-based high-tech company, which spent most of 1996 and 1997 adding staff as it grew in one of the industry’s periodic boom cycles.

The layoffs Thursday reportedly involved several longtime engineering employees as well as a number of manufacturing workers. Approximately 30 employees in Datum’s Irvine facility and 10 in its San Jose operation were dismissed.

The firings left the company with about 560 employees--down from 650 at the beginning of the year. Datum had added 150 workers in the two prior years.

“We were on an accelerated growth curve, and we hired people in anticipation of that continuing,” said David A. Young, Datum’s chief financial officer. “But our largest customer is Lucent Technologies, and Lucent has slowed its buying from us.” He said the company has taken other steps to reduce operating costs, but didn’t elaborate.

The company said in July that it anticipated a “modest loss” for the second half of the year. Datum’s stock slid from $17.63 a share just before that announcement to $11.50 the day after. Since then it has continued to slip, trading in the $9.50 to $10.38 range until this week, when it fell victim to the overall market decline.

The stock closed Thursday at $8.25 a share, down 75 cents. Since Datum did not announce the layoffs, the move apparently had no effect on the price.

Datum, which saw revenue grow almost 70% from 1995 to 1997, posted a 16% drop in sales for the first half of 1998.

In January, the company laid off 40 workers and said it expected revenue to fall this year.