Dive Brief:
- Medtronic said it is laying off a portion of its workforce. The Minneapolis Star Tribune first reported the layoffs, citing an internal company email it obtained on Tuesday.
- The company, in an emailed statement to MedTech Dive, would not confirm the number of positions that would be affected. In the email cited by the Star Tribune, Medtronic CEO Geoff Martha said the impact of the cuts will vary “by team, region and country.”
- In a February earnings call, Martha said Medtronic plans to make “significant” cost reductions to offset ongoing inflation and foreign-currency pressures.
Dive Insight:
Medtronic spokesperson Erika Winkels confirmed in an emailed statement that the company plans to reduce its full-time global workforce. The medical device company, which has headquarters in Minneapolis and Dublin, currently has about 95,000 global employees including more than 40,000 in the U.S.
Winkels declined to provide further detail on which businesses or locations would be affected, saying that the company is “still working through employee notifications over the coming months.”
According to the email obtained by the Star Tribune, Medtronic had already taken other cost-cutting measures, including limiting travel, slowing hiring and offering a voluntary early retirement program to employees in the U.S.
In its most recent earnings call, Medtronic executives said the firm would reduce costs to offset the impact of inflation and foreign-exchange rates. It has already taken some steps to that end. Earlier this month, the company issued a notice that it plans to close a facility in California, affecting 59 jobs.
Medtronic has undertaken a broader restructuring that involves spinning off some of its business units to streamline the company. It recently combined its robotics and legacy surgery businesses into one unit and is also in the process of spinning off its patient monitoring and respiratory care units into a separate business.
Medtronic also spun off its renal care solutions business into a new joint venture with DaVita, called Mozarc Medical, which launched earlier this month.
