Monday, March 31, 2008

Dude, You're Getting... Some Bad News

Dell is shutting down it's desktop unit in Austin. From the Statesman:

Dell Inc. said Monday it will close its desktop computer manufacturing plant in North Austin by the end of this year, cutting 900 jobs as part of a global cost-cutting campaign.

The company said the plant closing is part of a $3 billion program to cut its product costs worldwide over the next three years.

“We believe we have a $3 billion opportunity to drive both productivity and efficiency,” CEO Michael Dell said.

I believe that "$3 billion opportunity" refers to the deal with a N.C. municipality in which...

...the company also got hefty incentives from the state to build the plant. “They carved a real sweet deal in North Carolina, and they need to use a lot of the plant capacity there,”

This looks like the same type of playing one city off against another that we see sports teams engage in new stadium deals. Unfortunately those are real jobs involved that likely won't be replaced in this state anytime soon.

2 comments:

That Girl Boo said...

damn all around the world the same song

DP said...

Boo - No doubt. Houston feels Austin's pain as the same thing happened here a few years back when Compaq and HP merged, setting in motion massive layoffs at Compaq. The jobs don't come back.