NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Thermo Fisher Scientific informed about 230 employees earlier this year that their jobs are being eliminated, the company disclosed in a document filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission last week.
In its Form 10-Q, Thermo Fisher said that its severance costs totaled $10 million for the first quarter ended March 31 for the job cuts across all three of its segments — Analytical Technologies, Specialty Diagnostics, and Laboratory Products and Services.
A company spokesman said that while the charge was taken in the first quarter and the employees were notified of their job eliminations in the first quarter, some of the headcount reductions would occur later in the year.
About 100 layoffs are occurring in Analytical Technologies. Thermo Fisher took a charge of $3.1 million for severance related to the reduction in headcount and took a charge of $1 million for abandoned facility costs, it said in its Form 10-Q.
About 50 employees are being laid off in Specialty Diagnostics, and Thermo Fisher took a $1.7 million charge for severance and a $300,000 charge for abandoned facility costs.
Laboratory Products and Services is being reduced by 80 employees, which resulted in a charge of $5.2 million for severance. Thermo Fisher also took a charge of $1.2 million for abandoned facility costs and $1.2 million of other cash costs, primarily retention, relocation, and moving expenses related to facility consolidations, it said.
The company added that as of May 4, it had identified restructuring actions that will result in additional charges of $70 million, primarily in the remainder of 2012. It is unclear, how much of that, if any, is related to additional headcount reductions.
The layoffs follow the elimination of several hundred jobs last year.
During the firm's fourth-quarter earnings conference call in early February, Thermo Fisher President and CEO Marc Casper said that restructuring and cost-cutting moves are expected to save the company about $100 million in total between 2011 and 2013.