Telecom Italia to cut 5,000 jobs to reduce costs, maintain investments
Telecom Italia will cut 5,000 jobs by 2010, mostly through the merger of the fixed and mobile units, chief executive Franco Bernabe said in an interview published Thursday.
By Agencies |
MILAN: Telecom Italia will cut 5,000 jobs by 2010, mostly through the merger of the fixed and mobile units, chief executive Franco Bernabe said in an interview published Thursday. The company cuts are part of a three-year plan to reduce costs by euro300 million (US$464 million) a year and increase efficiency at Italy's dominant telecoms operator. Bernabe, who took over Telecom Italia in December, said the cuts are needed to continue investments in new technologies at a time when the price of services keeps going down.
``We can't continue to reduce prices without cutting costs, otherwise we would have to stop investments,'' Bernabe said in an interview with the business daily il Sole-24 Ore. Most of the job cuts will be realized through the merger of Telecom Italia's fixed line business with the TIM mobile unit as part of plans for complete convergence of the mobile and fixed-line businesses, Bernabe told the newspaper.
Bernabe also said Telecom Italia is continuing to look for synergies with Spain's Telefonica, which last year acquired a 24-percent controlling stake with Italian institutional investors, but that an industrial merger was ``not on the horizon.'' He said euro1.3 billion (US$2 billion) in synergies have been realized. Telecom Italia's shares were trading up 2.8 percent at euro1.43 (US$2.21) on the Milan Stock Exchange Thursday. The job cuts were first announced late Wednesday.
``We can't continue to reduce prices without cutting costs, otherwise we would have to stop investments,'' Bernabe said in an interview with the business daily il Sole-24 Ore. Most of the job cuts will be realized through the merger of Telecom Italia's fixed line business with the TIM mobile unit as part of plans for complete convergence of the mobile and fixed-line businesses, Bernabe told the newspaper.
Bernabe also said Telecom Italia is continuing to look for synergies with Spain's Telefonica, which last year acquired a 24-percent controlling stake with Italian institutional investors, but that an industrial merger was ``not on the horizon.'' He said euro1.3 billion (US$2 billion) in synergies have been realized. Telecom Italia's shares were trading up 2.8 percent at euro1.43 (US$2.21) on the Milan Stock Exchange Thursday. The job cuts were first announced late Wednesday.
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