Virgin Mobile: 100 Posts—One-Fourth The Staff—Could Be Cut, Or None At All
By David Kaplan - Wed 16 Apr 2008 11:35 AM PST
Virgin Mobile USA (NYSE: VM) might slash its roughly 400-person staff by one-fourth as the company seeks to rebound from poor quarterly earnings numbers. But spokeswoman Jayne Wallace also said no decision had been made about whether layoffs would occur and called today’s VentureBeat report that the company might cut 300 jobs “off-base,” adding, “we barely have that many employees in the entire company.” The MVNO has about 400 staffers, she said.
Wallace also told mocoNews the company is considering outsourcing some functions handled at its Walnut Creek, CA.-based headquarters and other offices around around the country but there were no plans to single out a location. Up to 100 positions could be eliminated, she said. The outsourcing option was discussed in an 10-k filing, Wallace said. The filing, dated March 17, said Virgin Mobile USA expects to open a new call center in Managua, Nicaragua later this year. It also said that in the future, the company may enter into outsourcing agreements “for the development and maintenance of certain systems necessary for the operation of our business.”
Wallace also insisted the proposed outsourcing was not related to Virgin Mobile USA’s disappointing quarterly earnings performance, noting that despite coming up short in its Q4 subscriber growth targets, the company did swing to a profit by the end of 2007. Wallace: “Cost savings is not the only reason companies look to outsource. One of the reasons could be to improve technological abilities. Other options include looking at technology partners. Our employees were told that this was being looked into. We might not lay off anyone. It’s in fact inappropriate to place any number on people that might be impacted since we have not made any decisions about anything at this point. There’s simply no way to know any of these details until decisions are made about what if, what, who.”
Posted in: Companies, Operators, MVNO, Virgin, Jobs
