Texas Instruments has responded to the downturn in the semiconductor market by announcing that it is making job cuts which will total 12% of its global workforce.
TI is the latest in a line of semiconductcor companies warning of a period of prolonged weakness in the market.
The cuts follow a 30% fall in fourth quarter revenues for the semiconductor manufacturer.
"We are realigning our expenses with a global economy that continues to weaken," said Rich Templeton, TI chairman, president and CEO.
TI warned that it is not counting on "a near-term economic rebound" for any improvement.
"Most of the reductions will come in our internal support functions and non-core product lines so that a greater percentage of the dollars we spend will go directly toward developing and supporting analogue and embedded processing products. We believe these are the areas that will drive TI's future growth and allow us to achieve our financial objectives," said Templeton.
TI's revenue declined 30% compared with the fourth quarter of 2007 and declined 26% compared with the third quarter of 2008.
Operating profit declined 95% compared with the fourth quarter of 2007 and 93% compared with the third quarter.