NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – PerkinElmer reduced its headcount by 229 employees in the second quarter, the company disclosed in a document filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday.
In its Form 10-Q, the firm said that the workforce reduction was made as part of a plan approved during the second quarter by management to realign operations, R&D resources, and production resources as a result of recent acquisitions. The firm has been quiet on the M&A front this year in the 'omics-related life science tools space, but during 2011 PerkinElmer made seven acquisitions, including its $600 million buy of Caliper Life Sciences.
As a result of the restructuring plan, PerkinElmer recognized a $4.0 million pretax restructuring charge in the Human Health segment, as well as a $200,000 pretax restructuring charge in the Environment Health segment, related to the headcount reduction from reorganization efforts.
It added that it expects to recognize an additional $5.4 million of incremental restructuring expense in "future periods."
The layoffs come on top of 243 positions that were eliminated by PerkinElmer during the first quarter of 2012 and fourth quarter of 2011 due to restructuring.
Other firms in the 'omics tools space have also recently implemented workforce reductions as they restructure their businesses. Thermo Fisher Scientific disclosed last week it eliminated 530 jobs in the first half of the year, and Roche is reducing its workforce by 120 positions as a result of the shutdown of its NimbleGen microarray business, as GenomeWeb Daily News' sister publication BioArray News recently reported.
Meanwhile, Complete Genomics and WaferGen also announced layoffs this year.