National Semiconductor announced the cost-cutting moves Wednesday as it reported its fiscal third-quarter profit plunged 71% to $21.1 million, or nine cents a share, from $72.9 million, or 29 cents a share, a year earlier. Sales fell 36% to $292.4 million

$273 Billon sounds like the figure for the whole industry, not just National Semi..

If thats a quarter of their workforce then they only had 7000 employees. $273 billion over 7000 employees is $39 million per employee.

If the numbers are correct then these guys deserve to go bankrupt. $39 million for every engineer, secretary, and janitor. That's insane...

It sounds like they're eating up their seed corn. When the current products get old and obsolete are they going to have the development staff to create the next round?

R u serious? $273 billion in 2007