Newspoem.

5 August 1999

Newspoetry Numerology

1650

PHOENIX -- Phelps Dodge Corp., one of the world's largest copper producers plans to cut back operations and lay off 1,650 workers because of the continuing worldwide slump in prices. Phelps Dodge will close facilities in Montville and Fairfield, N.J.; and Hopkinsville, Ky.; as well as factories in Educador, Venezuela, and the Phillipines.

+ 2630

Australian conglomerate Broken Hill Proprietary Co.'s decided to close its copper operations in Arizona and Nevada this fall and leave 2,630 mineworkers unemployed.

+5500

FRANKFURT -- The 5,500 layoffs resulting from Deutsche Bank's takeover of Bankers Trust will come mainly in New York and London -- places where the two banks had overlapping trading operations, Deutsche Bank said Friday.

None of the layoffs will be in Germany because Bankers Trust ``had no presence in Germany'' before the merger, hence there is no overlapping, a company spokesman said.

The 5,500 job cuts, which have already begun, represent almost 6 percent of the current workforce of 96,000 employees in the merged bank.

The merger of Germany's biggest bank and Bankers Trust, the eighth largest bank in the United States, was completed last month.

+200

RUMFORD, Maine -- Mead Corp. plans to cut about 200 jobs at its paper mill here as it sheds unprofitable product lines and focuses on the more lucrative coated paper market, company officials said Monday.

Rod Jamison, president of Local 900 of the United Paperworkers International Union said he expects about 150 union-covered workers and 50 salaried workers to lose their jobs. About 1,200 workers will remain when the cuts are completed, the Ohio-based company said. The company will set a severance package for salaried employees, and the union will negotiate its own severance package for union workers, Jamison said. Mead Chairman Jerry Tatar claims the four machines being shut down in Rumford are too old to keep up in the competitive uncoated paper market, which is being hurt by competition from abroad.

+1100

SAN JOSE, Cal. -- IBM plans to cut 1,100 jobs as the company moves some of its disk drive manufacturing operations to foreign countries to cut costs and streamline production.

IBM spokesman Dave Berman said a week ago Friday that the nation's largest information technology company -- with about 290,000 employees worldwide -- will manufacture the computer storage devices in Mexico, Hungary and Japan.

The cuts represent 10 percent of IBM's Northern California work force.

+15,400

NEW YORK -- Defense contractor Raytheon Co., leaner now after cutting more than 11,000 jobs and armed with new orders for radar systems, business jets and missiles, on Thursday said its second-quarter net income rose nearly 9 percent.

Raytheon (NYSE:RTNa - news) earned $294 million or 86 cents per share, up from 79 cents per share or $270 million, after a gain of 2 cents per share in the same period a year ago. Sales rose to $5.2 billion from $5.1 billion.

The results matched Wall Street expectations and pushed up the Lexington, Mass.-based company's stock 69 cents to $72.06 in midday trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

``This was a solid quarter filled with many more accomplishments than disappointments,'' Raytheon's Chief Financial Officer Frank Caine told analysts in a conference call. ``For four quarters in 1998, revenues were flat to down (but) we feel we have turned an important corner. This was an important quarter for new contracts.''

In a statement, President and Chief Executive Officer Daniel Burnham attributed the results to improved profit margins and a strong performance by the electronics business of Raytheon, which is America's third-largest defense contractor.

While total sales from its electronics businesses were flat at $3.8 billion, the cost-saving steps the company has taken helped boost their combined operating income by 14.5 percent to $555 million from $426 million a year ago.

Caine said by the end of June, 11,300 jobs had been eliminated and the company was well on the way to cutting 15,400 positions by the end of this year, which will leave its total work force at 115,000.

Raytheon boasted a number of major contract wins during the quarter, adding a total of $6.1 billion in new business. That is up from new contracts a year ago totaling $4.6 billion and up from $5.2 billion in the first quarter.

``Raytheon Aircraft secured its largest ever business jet order when Executive Jet Inc. chose to purchase up to 100 Hawker Horizon aircraft,'' Burnham said of the light, longer range business aircraft.

Another major contract is from the British Defense Ministry, which chose Raytheon's Airborne Standoff Radar (ASTOR) program. ASTOR, which Caine said was worth $1.3 billion to $1.4 billion, is not included in the $6.1 billion of new contracts in the second quarter.

Raytheon's total backlog at the end of the second quarter was $24.5 billion. ``We are pleased with the volume of business in the pipeline,'' said Caine.

Other new contracts include one from the U.S. Navy, with a potential maximum value of $414 million, for upgraded Tomahawk cruise missiles; a classified contract by the National Reconnaissance Office to develop a large multi-element space and ground system; and one from the Federal Aviation Administration to provide security equipment at 400 U.S. airports and facilities.

Caine noted that 27 percent of Raytheon sales were to international customers and the company recently closed deals with Greece and Egypt for military equipment.

Performance at Raytheon's other business lines was not nearly as robust, however.

Raytheon Engineers & Constructors posted operating income of $20 million on sales of $650 million compared to an operating profit of $30 million on sales of $618 million a year ago as the unit's operating margin slid to 3 percent from 4.9 percent a year ago. The company said the decline reflects continuing slowdown and project cancellations in forest products, metals and mining.

At Raytheon Aircraft Co. operating income rose to $75 million on sales of $731 million from $73 million on sales of $639 million. The 14 percent rise in sales reflected increased demand for mid-size jets, Raytheon said.

Separately on Thursday, Raytheon and France's Thomson-CSF said their Air Command Systems International joint venture had won a North American Treaty Organization agency contract valued at about $500 million.

= 26,480

(Average annual pay for 1995 for all covered workers in Burlington, VT.)

˜ 74

Average income in the world's five richest countries is 74 times the level in the poorest five, the widest the inequality gap has ever been.

= 358

(rounding up)

There are 358 billionaires in the world (their assets greater than the combined incomes of countries with 45 percent of the world's people (about 3 billion human beings)!)


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