Iomega Corp. will cut its workforce by 25 percent and end development of its DCT (Digital Capture Technology) product line in a restructuring aimed at cutting costs and returning to profitability, the company announced Thursday.
The San Diego-based maker of data storage products will cut 145 regular and temporary personnel worldwide, according to an Iomega statement. The cuts will come in every region and job function but will be concentrated on engineering and operations for DCT. Iomega will wind down development of DCT, a high-capacity, matchbook-sized portable hard drive for consumer electronics devices. It unveiled DCT in prototype form at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January. The company is pursuing the possibility of licensing the technology, according to the statement.
The company now plans to continue investing in and build a strategy around its REV removable rigid disk, a portable 35GB hard drive that Iomega says can store as much as 90GB of compressed data, as well as extend its consumer and small business product portfolio.
In addition to job cuts, Iomega plans to move out of some facilities and dispose of some excess assets. The company expects to record restructuring charges of between US$5 million and $7 million, mostly in the third quarter, with about $3 million of those charges related to the layoffs.