San Diego Housing Bubble News and Analysis

I heard a rumor...

Remember its just a rumor and I do not work for the "Q".

I heard that a company could layoff a certian amount of people without reporting it.

Can anyone tell me if that is true?

Well the rumor on the street is that they are laying off in very small waves to get under that number. But, at the same time, there are no massive layoff plans.

CE

I haven't heard a thing...

You work for them Mead?

;-)

It was from a managers meeting...BTW.

my source says he's heard nothing. He's a VP, high up. could be wrong though.

Doesn't this describe just about every large company out there? They all have the layoff plans in the works should they need to use them. They'd be foolish not to in this environment.

And it's correct, there are different regulations based on the amount of people being let go at any given site, total %, etc.

Hope they aren't...

I would like to work for them I think at some point...

CE

I think Qualcomm is a very smart company. QC does not announce lay-offs for several reasons:
1. It has to maintain hiring status in order to work on green-cards/working-visa applications for current foreign workers in the company. One of the requirements by the US Govt. is to show unavailability of American workers.
2. Analyst do not like lay-offs because it shows weakness in bad times. Hiring shows company growth.
3. QC always hires people when others are laying-off. Good bargains -- more labor for less ;-)
4. With revenue of $4Billion+ hiring or laying-off 2K is peanuts.

So, to answer your question -- As someone else mentioned QC is always laying-off people quietly and hiring quietly UNLESS there is a spin-off announcement. I think MediaFLO announcement is coming pretty soon so they might be preparing for a lay-off. This gives them an opportunity to meet requirement number one at the same time lay-off people QC dos not like.

I work for qc and they are always laying off people in very small numbers/ they never announce it though

BTW: QC revenue is >$9B/year

"Rumor has it that they are *** trying not to *** cut 2000 positions."

No comment.

Isn't there like just over 15K employees @ QCOM after 25 years in existence? 2K is significant number. Also, access to cash did not save people at Microsoft.

This is going to hit hard on CV even if they cut only 500 positions.

Yes they already laid off small chunks (like 30 in one time and 25 another time). They are doing smartly this process without bursting the nationwide news

I guess it depends. Check out the ownership records, if you got an owner on file from 90ies and is an QC employee, I doubt you're going to find that person/people in *that* much trouble.

(1) their stock options over the past would have been more than adequate
(2) they are probably going to be the last people to get axed ( It's the seniority and fraternity thing. )

The package was around 2k stock options priced at 40ish share in 96 or 97 with a $38-50k base salary(depending on whether you had a BS/MS...PHD.) (And that was for an entry level position.
You can do the math on the stock splits. This also excludes all espp and successive NQ stock grants.)

Of course, this assumes you were one of the people that didn't get shafted when QC sold their infrastructure division to Ericcson (people in that deal got screwed.) Or if you were part of Globalstar that somewhat got hit....Or if you went off to go do some of those ridiculous ideas started by folks from QC (*cough* wingcast). Or you went off to NextWave I and/or NextWave II.... However, if you were one of those people that got sold to Kyocera, I think you had a full vesting schedule while you were "on loan" to Kyocera, and after the loan period ended, if you were an oldtimer, you found your way back to QC.

....If you were a late qcommer, your package probably didn't look the same (as it was noticeably smaller) for entry level position, but then you wouldn't have stretched so thing to buy an expensive home if you were prudent to begin with.

Flu.... Why do I get the feeling your avoiding telling us what you know about layoffs??? Hmmmm????? Trying to change the subject maybe? Hmmmm.....

Just asking,

XBoxBoy

Because I don't work there anymore for a long time, and really don't know. Since 2000, frankly. Though my motorola advisor did tell tell me to stock up on QC stock when i was an intern in 95.
These rumors come and go. The talk in the sorrento valley foodcourt was about "Spinco" some time, and well now with the settlement, you know where that is going, and especially with the dude from QCT that went to MOT to run it, that was an clear indication.

A lot of them are just that rumors. You can confirm with folks if there is a hiring freeze or not.
Those small "layoffs" that do occur usually are in support organizations and/or organizations that aren't making money... IT dept, (omnitracks/or whatever it was for instance). And you can learn about them if you attend some of the San Diego technology working groups, as well as every other company that are getting hit. You just have to have your ears more tuned to what people are saying and do less of the talking.

I don't disagree CV prices are going to come down. But again, it's not going to be because of 1 employer or 2, unless there is a complete meltdown. The issues are going to occur because the entire economy is in the slump. QC like any big company has a lot of red tape, and their probably is a lot of fat to trim. No different than rest of corp america. But unlike other traditional wireless CO, QC is probably in a unique position in which they make money on (1) IP (intellectual property) and (2) chips. There is no other company is the wireless business that has as much a monopoly on this market as this company

Using QC as a bellweather to predict home prices probably isn't as accurate as the more macro economic issue going on. Because there's much more employers than just QC. And some of the older folks really are just not the ones that are hurting.

No listing for qc on California WARN

I think the pressure is not from incresing inventory, but mainly from shrinking buyers pool.

Feel really lucky to have a job and being recently promoted(with a raise). As soon as I buy my house I'll have to have a kegger, so that I can spread my good fortune.Unfortunately it probably won't be in Temecula. Anyone know some good keg beers?

Yeah, and MOT didn't list on WARN here in CA and definitely laid off more than 50 folks from the cell phone group in San Diego within the past few months.

http://blog.oregonlive.com/siliconforest...

Layoff watch: Qualcomm
Posted by The Silicon Forest Blog February 03, 2009 15:01PM
Categories: Job cuts
Cellular networking giant Qualcomm Inc. plans to close its office near Tigard this year, the San Diego company told employees today.

I'll have to reach out to a friend of mine that worked up there, to see if this is real.

I worked at the Q for about 10 years, and here are my insights FWIW:

1. Through my grapevine I heard that the Portland office was closing. This was announced internally last week.

2) I have not heard anything about a massive layoff. That doesn't mean it is or isn't going to happen. In the old days, before the company divisionalized, news from one division traveled a lot faster to other divions, because managers typically had direct reports working in other divisions. When the company was split up into divisions many years ago, that ended this cross-pollination and news travels a lot slower now. So if you have a friend who's a VP in Division X, there's a pretty good chance he has no idea what's about to happen in Division Y until it actually happens.

3) As someone already noted, Qualcomm is like any other company in that, in tough times they need to control costs just like anyone else. The vast majority of QCOM's revenue is driven by handset sales, and handset turnover time has increased greatly in the past year. With the iPhone (not a Qualcomm product) being a notable exception, people are waiting longer and longer to replace aging handsets. As the economy continues to worsen, these upgrade cycles are going to continue to lengthen.

4) QCOM's days of explosive growth have been over for a long time. The company has matured into a solid performer with strong revenue, but they are now selling into a fairly saturated market, and they have more adversaries than allies, especially in Europe. I wouldn't be terribly surprised if European regulatory agencies managed to lock QCOM out of Euro 4G standards, similar to what happened in 2G with IS-95 CDMA essentially being outlawed in Europe in favor of GSM.

I've had doubts about their earnings growth potential for a long time. They're pretty much in turn-the-crank-and-collect-the-royalties mode, but I don't see what their next act will be when this gravy train eventually grinds to a halt.

This is definitely real. confirmed with my friend who works up there. She may be relocating back to San Diego... so much for her big house for cheap $$.

Would the WARN (The Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification) Act apply in this situation?

http://www.doleta.gov/programs/factsht/w...

Here is a good place to keep an eye on this stuff and talk about in the forums.

http://www.jobimplode.com

Only if they're laying off 50 or more in one state.
70 of the rumored 2000 are from Oregon. (Tigard facility).

And only if they comply. Motorola just laid off a bunch of folks here - and apparently didn't file with WARN in CA. I don't know if there will be consequences to ignoring the law.

http://messages.finance.yahoo.com/Stocks...