Citrix to lay off 10 per cent of workforce

Cost cutting programme announced as profits slide

Citrix wants to generate £35m in savings by reducing its workforce

Infrastructure software firm Citrix has started a restructuring programme to consolidate its facilities and eliminate 10 per cent of its global headcount.

Citrix anticipates that the workforce reduction will result in yearly pre-tax savings of around $50m (£34.9m). It expects to incur a pre-tax charge of $19m to $23m (£13.2m to £16m) as a result of the redundancies.

The cull was announced as the company disclosed its fourth-quarter results. Profits slid to $60m (£41.9m) from $63m (£44m) in the previous year, with revenues totalling $415.7m (£290m), an increase from $399.6m (£279.1m) reported for the same period in 2007.

In the meantime, Citrix rival VMware has not yet announced any intentions of a staff reduction, and has over 190 vacancies listed on its website with several openings in its desktop virtualisation division.