02/14 16:26 Xerox Says as Many as 10,000 Jobs May Be Eliminated in 2001 By Leslie Miller

New York, Feb. 14 (Bloomberg) -- Xerox Corp. may eliminate 10,000 jobs, or 11 percent of its workforce, this year as the largest copier company seeks to become profitable again, said Carlos Pascual, executive vice president for developing markets.

``You can look at something around 10,000,'' Pascual said during an interview with Bloomberg TV. ``That's a number that may represent the savings we are trying to get out during 2001.''

Xerox fired 2,000 workers last year and said it would fire another 4,000 in the first quarter. The company plans to cut $1 billion in costs, sell up to $4 billion in assets and exit the financing business to return to profitability. Competition, internal turmoil, a cash crunch and accounting problems caused the company to lose money in the second half of 2000.

``Absolutely, yeah, yeah, it will be over 4,000,'' Pascual said. ``This expense reduction is going to be coming from basically all the different organizations in the company.''

A spokesman for Stamford, Connecticut-based Xerox said the number was speculative.

``Several factors will weigh into the final number and it's premature for Xerox to discuss that level of detail,'' said Bill McKee. Xerox will determine how many jobs to eliminate after it has sold assets and outsourced some manufacturing, McKee said.

Shares of Xerox rose 58 cents to $7.45. They've lost 66 percent of their value in the past year.

-- kevin (kevin@mailcity.com), February 14, 2001