Dell joins parade of tech giants slashing their workforces

Dell Technologies is the most recent large high-tech company to announce a major layoff, with the hardware maker saying Monday it is slashing 5% of its workforce.

In a regulatory filing, Dell attributed the job cuts to a "challenging global economic environment." Dell Chief Operating Officer Jeff Clark told employees in a letter that the company's previous moves to reduce its costs "are no longer enough. We now have to make additional decisions to prepare for the road ahead."

The cuts amount to roughly 6,600 people, with Dell saying it has about 133,000 workers globally in its most recent annual report, filed January of last year. The company previously paused external hiring, limited travel and cut spending on outside services.

The cuts will be completed by the end of April, according to the filing.

Dell shares fell 3.6% on Monday after the cuts were announced and are down 31% of the last 12 months.

Over the last year, Dell has lost ground to other computer manufacturers. As of the fourth quarter of 2022, Dell had roughly 16% of the market for global PC sales, down from just over 18% a year earlier, according to IDC. That trails China's Lenovo, the No. 1 PC maker with 23% of the market, and No. 2 HP with nearly 20%.

In its most recent quarter, Dell reported net revenue of $24.7 billion, down 6% from $26.4 billion in the year-ago period. Its net income from continuing operations fell to $241 million, down 93% from $3.6 billion a year ago.

A number of large tech players, including Google-parent Alphabet, Amazon, IBM, Meta, Microsoft and Twitter have laid off tens of thousands of employees in recent months after expanding rapidly during the pandemic. So far this year, U.S. tech companies have announced 67,000 job cuts, according to the website Layoffs.fyi.

—Irina Ivanova contributed to this report.