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By Mel Duvall
Security and application delivery vendor Blue Coat Systems has announced a corporate restructuring that will see staff pared by 10 percent and some operations moved offshore.
As part of the restructuring, the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company also announced it is acquiring S7 Software, a 65-person services firm based in Bangalore, India, for $5.25 million in cash.
The company said the restructuring plan will shift a number of engineering positions from Sunnyvale and Austin, Texas, to its other locations, including the S7 Bangalore operation. In so doing, Blue Coat said it is closing three facilities in South Plainfield, N.J., Riga, Latvia, and Zoetermeer, The Netherlands. Blue Coat said it is also reorganizing other functional areas, including sales and marketing and general and administrative to "gain greater efficiencies."
The company's research and development work will now be consolidated in four locations: Sunnyvale, Calif., Draper, Utah; Waterloo, Canada; and Bangalore. Prior to the restructuring announcement Blue Coat employed about 1,500.
"The combination of the restructuring program and the acquisition of S7 Software strikes an appropriate balance between profitability and investment for innovation," Blue Coat chief financial officer Gordon Brooks said in a statement. "Together these actions will allow us to invest for future growth while aligning the company's cost structure to its current revenue level."
Blue Coat specializes in software that helps corporations migrate from one platform or software version to another. It also sells network security and performance management tools. Its customers include 97 of the Fortune 100, including some of the world's largest banks, pharmaceutical companies and petroleum refiners. It had revenues of $445 million in 2008.
Blue Coat is far from alone among tech companies in having to hand out pink slips these days. Last week Microsoft said it would lay off an additional 800 employees in addition to the 5,000 job cuts it made earlier this year. Sun Microsystems also said it began a round of job costs that will include about 3,000 employees.
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