COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.—Atmel Corp. has laid off 140 permanent employees in Colorado Springs in its latest round of cuts due to weak economic conditions.
Nineteen-year Amtel programmer Barry Pettis tells The Gazette the layoffs affected hourly workers as well as salaried managers ( ). The company, based in San Jose, Calif., makes touchscreen microcontrollers.
Atmel’s investor relations director, Peter Schuman, says the cuts Tuesday and the layoffs of 60 temporary workers in mid-December came because the company’s Colorado Springs plant has been operating at about 70 percent capacity for more than a year.
The plant now has about 1,100 employees.
About a year ago, the Colorado Springs City Council approved retroactive tax breaks that cut the company’s tax bill by $339,070 on $25 million in capital spending planned by 2015.
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Information from: The Gazette,
