In announcing its fourth-quarter earnings Tuesday, Boston Scientific (NYSE:BSX) also announced that it was reducing its workforce by 900 to 1,000 people worldwide, a move that will lower pre-tax operating expenses by $100 million to $115 million by the end of the year.
The reduction will occur through a mixture of attrition and layoffs. A company news release did not mention in which divisions and where the jobs would be lost.
Boston Scientific, which garners most of its revenue from U.S. sales, has been hurt by the recession as well as lower utilization of its products, especially in the cardiac rhythm management division.
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The current restructuring expands upon a 2011 belt-tightening plan in which the company announced it would lay off up to 1,400 positions and save between $225 million to $275 million annually by 2013.
With Tuesday’s layoffs, the Natick, Massachusetts medical device company now expects to save a cumulative $340 million to $375 million by year’s end.
In the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31, the company saw profits decline to $60 million or 4 cents a share, compared with profit of $107 million or 7 cents a share.
Still, adjusted earnings of 14 cents per share beat analysts’ consensus estimates by 7 cents, according to Seeking Alpha. Sales of $1.82 billion in the quarter fell 1 percent compared with the same period a year before.
