Palo Alto-based cloud infrastructure company VMware announced that it will cut 219 jobs in Palo Alto, according to a document it filed with the California Employment Development Department (EDD) on Tuesday, Jan. 26.
The losses are part of a strategy to axe 800 jobs from its workforce, according to its fourth quarter and full-year 2015 reports. Palo Alto will lose 170 jobs at the company's headquarters, with another 49 cuts of employees assigned to remote locations who report to the Palo Alto headquarters.
The layoffs are expected on March 28 or during the 14-day period beginning on that date, according to the notice filed with the state EDD. Other layoffs will occur overseas and in Colorado, according to the Denver Post.
Computer company Dell is making a $67 billion bid to purchase storage data company EMC, which owns an 80 percent stake in VMware, according to TechCrunch, and the cuts are seen as the first sweep of housekeeping in preparation for that possible merger, according to business-media reports.
The layoffs represent about 4.4 to 5 percent of the company's workforce worldwide, according to Fortune.com and other business news organizations. Affected employees include employees from VMware's Fusion, vCloud Air and Workstation groups, according to Fortune.com.
In Palo Alto, the cuts are coming across all sectors. Job cuts include technical staff, high-level directors and senior managers across multiple sectors, including cuts in finance, research and development, user experience, IT, quality engineering and marketing, according to the company's state EDD filing.
Jonathan Chadwick, chief financial officer and executive vice president, will also leave VMWare. He will be replaced by Zane Row, current chief financial officer at EMC, according VMware's financial report.
