Philips to cut 6,000 jobs after loss

Dutch consumer electronics giant Philips said today it would cut 6,000 jobs worldwide to cope with the global slowdown which pushed its results into the red.

The company said it suffered a net loss of $242 million for 2008 after a fourth quarter loss of euro 1.47 billion, largely due to a revaluation of its Lumileds diode light unit.

For 2008, sales were down 1.5 per cent at 26.39 euro billion.

In 2007, the company had a net profit of euro 4.16 billion.

The fourth quarter loss was worst than analyst forecasts for euro 1.2 billion and reflected a euro 1.3 billion revaluation of Lumileds. In the same period a year earlier, the company had a profit of euro 1.4 billion.

Fourth quarter sales fell 8.9 per cent to euro 7.62 billion.

"The fourth quarter results reflect the serious consequences of the global financial and economic crisis and the measures taken by management accordingly," chief executive Gerard Kleisterlee said in a statement.

In view of falling demand, management was giving "absolute priority to cashflow, at the expense of profit if necessary, and to speeding up restructuring and adjustment measures", he said.

The company hoped for savings of some euro 400 million on an annual basis by the second quarter of this year, he added.

A company spokesman said all divisions would be affected by the job cuts but declined to give further details.

Philip said it would halt is five billion euros share buy-back programme for this year.