Bose Corporation announces massive job cuts

21 January 2009

Battered by the slumping US economy and setbacks in the consumer electronics business, Bose Corporation, known for its high-end audio products, will cut 1,000 jobs, about 10 per cent of its global workforce.

The Framingham, Massachusetts, company, which is privately held and does not disclose revenue or employment figures, was founded in 1964 by then-Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Amar Gopal Bose.

It has continued to have a strong link to MIT throughout its history, serving as a major hirer of MIT engineering graduates. The company has an estimated $2 billion a year in sales.

Bose issued a statement on Tuesday saying it was ''restructuring its operations in response to the decline of the global economy, and its impact on consumer spending.'' It said the cutback would affect unspecified ''select areas, including manufacturing.'' The company declined to provide further details or make an executive available to discuss its finances and restructuring plan.

"We have been staffed for a growing economy, not a global recession," company spokeswoman Carolyn Cinotti said in a statement. "As a global company, we are responding to these challenges. The statement said the company's job cuts would ''help us prepare for the future, and preserve our focus on research, innovation, quality, and our customers.''

Bose has repeatedly credited his company's private ownership structure as a key to its long-term success in churning out state-of-the art audio equipment. He also said it enabled the company to invest in a number of Bose's pet projects over the years, including a yet-to-be-commercialized suspension system for cars.