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Allergan to cut loose 577 more workers in Irvine

April 20, 2015
Life sciences
The pink slips are flying at Allergan once again. Recently bought by Actavis ($ACT) in a $66 billion deal, the company is preparing to lay off 577 more workers in a cost-cutting drive that started last year and won’t end till its new head honchos finish squeezing savings out of the combined company.
 
According to a WARN notice filed with the state of California, Allergan plans to cut loose those 577 staffers in its home city of Irvine. The cuts are set for June 4, the state says in a compendium of layoffs kept on its website.
 
When Allergan was struggling to fend off a $53 billion hostile takeover by Valeant Pharmaceuticals ($VRX), then-CEO David Pyott rolled out a cost-savings plan to appease investors. The company said it would cut 1,500 jobs and other costs to save $475 million this year.
 
Valeant, for its part, said it would slash at least $2.7 billion in annual costs, 80% within the first 6 months.
 
That was July. By November, Allergan had agreed to a $66 billion bid from Actavis, and executives there were talking about $1.8 billion in savings, most of it within the first year. And that would be on top of Allergan’s cost cuts.
 
Since Allergan announced those first cuts, the company has warned the state about 674 layoffs, not including the latest notice. Some 500 of those were to come in Irvine, with the remainder in Carlsbad and Goleta.
 
So, with the latest group of 577, that’s more than 1,000 layoffs in Allergan’s headquarters city.
 
The job cuts in California haven’t spared Actavis’ own operations, however. The company warned the state of 288 layoffs in recent months, the lion’s share in Corona, its headquarters in a previous iteration as Watson Pharmaceuticals. And that’s after a string of job cuts across the country, including 30% of its U.S. sales operation back in 2013.
 
By Tracy Staton
 

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