Citicorp, Travelers May Cut 8,000 Jobs

Citicorp and Travelers Group Inc. may cut 8,000 jobs, or 5% of their combined work force, by year-end because of their planned merger and global economic turmoil, a Citicorp spokesman said. The companies, which are awaiting Federal Reserve Board approval to merge, have not mandated any job cuts, but spokesman Jack Morris said a 5% reduction “is within the realm of possibility.” Travelers, which owns insurance businesses, mutual funds and securities firm Salomon Smith Barney, agreed in April to merge with Citicorp, the nation’s second-largest bank, in a stock-for-stock deal then worth $70 billion. The resulting entity would be known as Citigroup and be the world’s largest financial services company. The recent slump in financial services stocks has reduced the deal’s value to about $46 billion. The companies, which together employ 100,000 people in the U.S. and 60,000 overseas, have asked each of their businesses “to review its expected business activity and see if its staffing level is consistent with that,” Morris said. Travelers’ stock fell $2.44 to close at $40.69, and Citicorp shares slid $6.50 to close at $96.25 in New York Stock Exchange trading.