Reports are coming in regarding significant layoffs from Olympus Corp., as of last Friday (27th February, 2009).
The Lehigh Valley Live website (source) reports local layoffs, and quotes Olympus spokeswoman Elizabeth Sullivan as saying the move affects sales and related employees in the company's camera business, which has been affected by the sharp reduction in consumer spending, and the bankruptcy of two big Olympus customers (Ritz and Circuit City).
Olympus has not disclosed an exact number of reductions, saying affected employees may apply for other vacancies.
Furthermore, a lengthy thread on DPReview (source) claims:
Without notice Olympus America laid off most of it's field sales force in the USA on Friday.
Employees found out they were laid off on Friday afternoon when their email and blackberries stopped working. Sales and technical representatives were laid off Friday due to lack of sales and declining market share for Olympus USA. A brief "you have been laid off" call to the employees finalized the mass firing that one long time Olympus employee called a "bloodbath". Not even long time sales managers were spared in the relentless drive to downsize.
The post goes into a lot more detail, although we have no way of verifying any of the claims in the post.
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