Level 3 Announces Work Force Reduction

Level 3 Communications announced a layoff of approximately 500 to 600 employees, resulting in an expected operational savings to the company of approximately $60 million to $70 million per year. The cuts will take place before the end of January 2005.


Level 3 noted that contract activity for consumer-oriented Voice-over-IP services has been strong, but that it remained difficult to predict whether its wholesale service provider customers would gain traction in sales to end users.


"We remain pleased with the volume of sales we've seen in recent quarters related to IP, transport, voice and other strategic services, and we continue to invest in areas where we see growing opportunities," said James Q. Crowe, Level 3's chief executive officer. "We expect to meet or exceed our previously issued guidance for communications revenue for the fourth quarter of 2004, and we are focused on converting new sales to revenue and on maximizing our ability to scale in response to market demand."http://www.level3.com/