Intel hopes to cut costs, plans to slash 10,500 jobs

US semiconductor giant Intel will slash 10,500 jobs, or about 10% of its work force, through layoffs, attrition and the sale of underperforming business groups as part of a massive restructuring, an Associated Press report said.

The report said most of the job cuts this year would come from its management, marketing and information technology ranks, and would expand in 2007 to include manufacturing, design and other segments.

The cuts are expected to save the company $3 billion a year by 2008. Severance costs are expected to total $200 million, the report said.

Intel is fighting to reverse sinking profits and make it more efficient as it seeks to regain market share stolen by smaller rival Advanced Micro Devices.

"These actions, while difficult, are essential to Intel becoming a more agile and efficient company, not just for this year or the next, but for years to come," Intel CEO Paul Otellini, quoted in statement, said.

About 5,000 of the affected positions had already been cut or would be eliminated this year through a previously announced management layoff, the pending sale of two businesses, and attrition, said Intel spokesman Chuck Mulloy.

The company planned to cut some 2,500 more jobs by year's end. The remainder would be shed in 2007, when Intel's head count would settle at around 92,000, Mulloy said.

Many analysts and investors were expecting higher job cuts and a better-defined strategy for dealing with problem business units, said Nathan Brookwood, analyst with research firm Insight 64.