AMP Announces 8,000 Job Cuts

AMP Inc. is eliminating approximately 8,000 jobs, or 15 percent of its work force, as its new owners try to restore the $5.5 billion company to leadership in the market for connectors for electric and electronic devices.

The cuts announced Thursday in a worldwide work force of 48,800 provide firm figures after more than a year of attempts to restructure the company, which has been hit hard by the Asian economic crisis and a failed expansion. The business, bought earlier this month by Bermuda-based Tyco International Ltd. (TYC), hopes to save $1 billion over the next two years.

Last year, AMP shook up its top management and cut 4,800 jobs as part of a plan to save $400 million. But that effort failed because all those jobs were replaced within a few months, AMP's president, Jurgen Gromer, said in a telephone interview Thursday.

The latest round of cuts include all those jobs that were replaced and an additional 3,200 positions. Earlier reports, later denied by Tyco, said Tyco was planning to cut 4,000 jobs at AMP on top of the job cuts announced by AMP last year. About half of the positions being eliminated will be in the United States, including 2,100 in Pennsylvania and 900 in North Carolina.

The company makes connectors for devices that are put into just about everything from refrigerators to missiles. It has 130 plants worldwide, including 68 in the United States. Pennsylvania has 40 plants. North Carolina has 20 facilities. No additional layoffs are planned and AMP's headquarters will remain in Harrisburg, where it has been for more than 50 years, the company said.

AMP was founded in New Jersey in 1941 and was acquired for $12 billion by Tyco. Despite last year's restructuring effort, AMP's sales continued to decline while expenditures rose significantly, said spokeswoman Maryanne Kane. The latest restructuring will focus on improving customer service.

Gromer said the restructuring "is designed to save the overwhelming majority of jobs at AMP." It will reduce costs and make the company a more efficient competitor, he said.

"We must be committed to producing, selling and delivering products to our customers in the most cost effective manner," Gromer said in a statement. "This objective can be accomplished now that we have implemented our organizational plan to best meet our customers' needs."

In afternoon trading on the New York Stock Exchange, Tyco stock was down 1 3/4 points to 82 and 11/16.