Cutting costs amid tougher business conditions, BMC Software Inc. will lay off 7 percent of its workforce, or around 476 employees, the company said Monday.
BMC makes software to manage server infrastructure for applications, and competes with IBM Corp. subsidiary Tivoli Systems Inc., Computer Associates International Inc. (CA) Unicenter products and Hewlett Packard Co.'s OpenView offering, said Tim Grieser, an analyst at International Data Corp. in Framingham, Massachusetts.
It's been a tough year all around for software makers, he said. BMC's "severe" focus on cost containment "is consistent with other things going on in the industry," Grieser said. CA cut 900 positions from its global staff in October, and Tivoli laid off 250 of its 4,250 employees in July. HP has made job cuts in the thousands this year, although it isn't clear how many, if any, have come from its OpenView division.
BMC took a net loss of US$53.3 million -- or $0.22 a share -- for its second fiscal quarter ending Sept. 30, compared to a loss of $12.5 million or $0.05 per share in the same quarter a year earlier. Revenues declined about 9 percent, to $293.8 million compared to $323 million in the same quarter last year.
BMC did not disclose which business units would be affected by the layoffs. The company said it would take a charge of between $14 million and $18 million during the third quarter as a result of the layoffs.
(Sumner Lemon in Taipei contributed to this report.)
BMC, based in Houston, Texas, can be reached at +1-713-918-8800 or via the Internet at http://www.bmc.com/.
