Intel Israel is continuing to impose new cuts as part of its streamlining plan. Sources familiar with the matter have told "Globes" that several thousand of the company's 11,000 employees in Israel have received notice that the company is halting its car leasing program. Consequently thousands of Intel Israel employees will be required to forgo their company cars and find alternative forms of transport.
Estimates are that Intel Israel provides several thousand employees with company cars through leasing companies. This is an expensive benefit, since each company car costs Intel thousands of shekels a month, and in an era when working from home is also possible, this is not always worthwhile. For Intel, this cut will save NIS 12 million in expenses, for handling the fleet and maintaining a management team for the vehicles.
In its financial report last month, Intel announced that it was implementing a streamlining plan to save $10 billion by laying off 15% of its workforce - over 17,000 employees. In the first stage of the plan, Intel has been focusing on collecting the names of employees who wish to join the voluntary retirement program - which offers retirement in exchange for a number of prepaid salaries as compensation, while employees who did not join the initiative will be fired with the minimum compensation required by law.
Last week Intel announced that it was closing down its Intel Ignite accelerator, which is managed in Israel by an Israeli team. The accelerator program did not include investments in the companies participating but did include support and mentoring. It is being closed down because it is not part of Intel's core activities. Intel is now focusing on two main goals: developing manufacturing processes in its production plants, which are now many generations behind competitors such as TSMC and Samsung; and marketing these production lines for external customers. So far, Intel has been unsuccessful in both of these aims, while at the same time losing market share in PC and server chips.
No response from Intel to this report has been forthcoming.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on September 1, 2024.
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