Cable & Wireless shake-up to cost 1,400 jobs

Cable & Wireless is cutting 1,400 jobs, including 500 in the UK, as it restructures its data and internet services business around the world.

Cable & Wireless is cutting 1,400 jobs, including 500 in the UK, as it restructures its data and internet services business around the world.

The cuts will take place over the next six months in the Cable & Wireless Global business. Staff were told on Monday but the company has not yet made an external announcement. The cuts represent almost 10 per cent of C&W Global's workforce.

There will be compulsory redundancies although the company has not detailed how these will fall. Not all staff who have applied for voluntary redundancy yet know whether or not their applications will be accepted.

The cuts come as a result of the merger of several C&W businesses including companies in Ireland and Japan. This has given rise to duplication of skills which the company is now stripping out. Many of the cuts will fall in middle management positions.

C&W said the cuts were necessary to "rebase the skills" in the group and enable it to compete effectively in internet protocol and data markets.

Graham Wallace, Cable & Wireless's chief executive since 1999, has been looking to restructure the group in order to focus on business services, such as carrying data and managing web sites for businesses. Competitors include WorldCom and Global Crossing.

The company, which ranks as Britain's second biggest phone company after BT, has been selling divisions that provide services to residential customer.

It has already gathered a cash pile of over £4bn from the sale of its residential cable business in the UK and the disposal of Hongkong Telecom to Pacific Century CyberWorks. Last month it unveiled plans to sell the mobile and consumer divisions of its Australian business Optus, which could add another £1.9bn to the company's cash pile.

C&W shares closed 34p higher at 990p. They stood at 1562p in March.