Philips to slash 6,000 jobs

AFP - Dutch consumer electronics giant Philips said Monday 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 186 million euros (242 million dollars) for 2008 after a fourth quarter loss of 1.47 billion euros, largely due to a revaluation of its Lumileds diode light unit.

For 2008, sales were down 1.5 percent at 26.39 billion euros.

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

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

Fourth quarter sales fell 8.9 percent to 7.62 billion euros.

"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 400 million euros 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.