Sonus Networks joins the restructing wave, cuts jobs

Sonus Networks, the Westford, Mass.-based IP communications infrastructure provider, announced a restructuring initiative Thursday that will eliminate 5 percent of the total Sonus workforce. About 50 jobs will be cut. The company cited a combination of facilitating ongoing business transformation and continued investment in high-growth opportunities as the reasons for the restructuring.

"We are right-sizing the business to align with market opportunities and improve speed and agility while managing our costs to position the Company for profitable growth," said Richard Nottenburg, president and CEO of Sonus Networks. "We will continue to invest in those high growth opportunities which return the greatest value to all our stakeholders and we are committed to generating solid financial returns for our shareholders, building category leadership and delivering innovative, market-leading technology to our customers."

Sonus estimated it would take a refinancing charge of around $900,000 on a pre-tax basis in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2008. It reported likely savings from the staff reduction at between $5 and 6 million.

Like many companies that have trimmed staff lately, Sonus said it would continue to hire in "specific geographies to support business plans," and that all cuts were made to maintain its strategic position during bad economic conditions.

Sonus reported lower than expected results in the third quarter and the company also unloaded Zynetix, a GSM softswitch company it had picked up about a year ago.  In November, CTO Vikram Saksena was the latest Sonus executive to split, one of several  executive departures that has occured since ex-Moto executive Richard Nottenburg arrived in May.

For more:
- see the Sonus release here

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