Palm cuts undisclosed number of jobs: Treo maker slimming down after series of missteps

Palm Inc., which employs about 1,250 people, yesterday made job cuts of undisclosed magnitude, the company said.
“Palm is working to sharpen its focus and better align resources behind core initiatives that will make the greatest impact to our business,” the company said in a statement. “To this end, and to ensure that our expenses are in line with projected revenues, we have made some reassignments and reductions in staff. This will better enable us to compete most effectively and ensure our long-term success.”
The company did not provide details.
Palm’s stock was relatively unchanged in trading after the news. The Treo maker delivers its fiscal second-quarter results Tuesday.
The job cuts are not surprising. The smartphone maker delivered chastened financial guidance just a week ago for its fiscal second quarter, noting that a “key product”-speculation focused on a new Treo device destined for Verizon Wireless-had failed to ship during the quarter.
The company lowered its revenue guidance to between $345 million and $350 million, well below its Oct. 1 guidance of $370 million to $380 million, and Palm also said that its popular Centro handset-selling through Sprint Nextel Corp. for $100 with a contract-had cut into its profit margin.
A busy year
Palm’s public fortunes have gyrated all year. In September, the company announced it would cancel its Foleo computing product-a laptop-style, screen-and-keyboard device that met mixed reviews when announced in June-and take less than a $10 million charge to cover its costs. The Treo vendor also made a round of job cuts in June despite announcing it had attracted a $325 million cash infusion from Elevation Partners and raised $400 million in new debt, while adding two former Apple executives to its board.
Palm said when it canceled the Foleo that it would focus on developing a new software platform to streamline application development for its range of devices.