News In Brief

By Compiled from wire service reportsRobert Kilborn and Stephanie Cook

March 22, 2001

Oracle Corp., the world's No. 2 software company, announced it will lay off 900 workers, or about 2 percent of its global workforce. The Redwood City, Calif.-based firm said the cuts, which it blamed on slowing demand, would come through a combination of attrition and evaluations of future need. The move puts Oracle in the company of other Silicon Valley high-tech giants such as Intel Corp. and Cisco Systems, which announced thousands of job cuts earlier this month.

Teradyne Inc., a maker of semiconductor test equipment, said it will lay off 650 of its 10,000-employees. The company also will institute salary delays for all employees and a pay cut for senior managers in an attempt to reduce operating expenses. Earlier this month, Boston-based Teradyne announced it would lay off more than 1,400 temporary workers and warned that first-quarter sales would be down by 35 percent from the fourth quarter of last year.