SAN FRANCISCO—RF chip maker TriQuint Semiconductor Inc. cut about 70 jobs in Florida last week after issuing a disappointing quarterly report and sales forecast, according to a report by the South Florida
Sun Sentinel. The
Sun Sentinel reported Monday (April 30) that TriQuint
cut about 70 jobs last week in Apopka, Fla., where TriQuint has a 100-mm surface acoustic wave (SAW) filter fab. The company said last week it would cut an unspecified number of jobs in Florida and Costa Rica, where it has a SAW filter test and assembly facility.
TriQuint said last week that the job cuts were part of a plan to restructure the company's filter-related operations. The company's stock price nose-dived last week after the company forecast a loss for the current quarter.
"We are rightsizing our factories in Florida and Costa Rica as we transition to [wafer-level packaging] and away from commodity duplexers towards a higher-value mix of products," said Ralph Quinsey, TriQuint's president and CEO, in a conference call with analysts following last week's quarterly report. Quinsey said the job cuts were "necessary" as the company moves to higher-valued products and next generation packaging technology.
A spokesperson for TriQuint said the company is not revealing the total number of jobs that have been cut. No jobs are being eliminated outside of Florida or Costa Rica, the spokesperson said. Most of the jobs eliminated were in operations, the spokesperson said.
TriQuint reported first quarter sales of $216.7 million, down 5 percent from the previous quarter and down 3 percent compared to the first quarter of 2011. TriQuint reported a net income for the quarter of $1.9 million, down 56 percent compared to the previous quarter and down 85 percent compared to the first quarter of 2011.
