When the economy slumps R&D becomes a luxury, so it's really no surprise that Ericsson will close its Warrendale, Pa., R&D facility by the middle of next year. Who needs to develop new products when you can't sell the old ones?

About 250 workers will be canned--or possibly relocated--as part of the phased rollout that follows a February announcement by the telco vendor that it would slice jobs and manufacturing locations in the U.K. and Germany. The company's Sony Ericsson joint venture already gave the bad news to about 400 workers at its Raleigh Research Triangle Park facility in September.

It's not as if all these moves are sudden--badly timed, perhaps, but not sudden. Ericsson in July uttered the most evil of all corporate words, restructuring, and said it would be reducing worldwide headcount by 2,000.

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