Not only is troubled database company Sybase Inc shedding 10% of its 6,000-strong workforce to help it return to profitability, speculation is that an announcement planned for Thursday will reveal a shake-up of top-level management in an effort to restore its battered fortunes. President and COO John Chen, who as we reported (CI No 3,315), has been in charge of day-to-day operations for sometime, is slated to win the CEO chevrons from Mitchell Kertzman, who will remain chairman. PC Week reports that SVP Mike Forster will also announce his retirement. Sybase is axing 600 staff and restructuring to focus on the internet, data warehousing and mobile computing, markets Sybase has identified has high growth. Most job losses are in the US, primarily at the company’s headquarters in Emeryville, California but also at the former PowerSoft operation Boston. 50 will go in Europe, as well some positions in Asia. As a result of the restructuring Sybase will take a one off charge of $70m this quarter, aiming to get back to profitability by the third or fourth quarter of this year. If all goes to plan, Sybase will save itself $25m a quarter as a result of the restructuring, and hopes to be able to make some strategic investments on the back of it. Before the latest news the consensus of analysts’ estimates suggested the company would record a $0.10 loss for the quarter and a $0.03 profit for the year. News of the cuts was not unexpected; reporting its fourth quarter loss of $25.5m on sales of $223.2m back in January, Sybase warned of a revenue shortfall and a possible loss because of poor sales in the North American market while ‘creative’ accounting practices by its Japanese unit forced the company to restate its numbers for 1997 downwards by $65m. According to Sybase’s European director of marketing and business operations Mike Shelton, the company will not be looking to move away from the database market. According to Shelton databases still account for half of the company’s revenues, the other half generated from services, middleware and tools. The US is still Sybase’s biggest market, but sales in Europe now account for a third of the company’s business. Shelton says Europe is still a strong and profitable business, hence the smaller number of job losses. The company has chopped jobs across the board, attempting to eliminate duplicate positions. Sybase shares closed down $0.0625 on the day at $9.938.
