More job cuts could be looming at Boeing Co.’s Seal Beach, Huntington Beach and Long Beach operations as the aerospace giant looks to trim thousands of positions across the country to improve its position against Airbus, a rival on commercial aircraft.
The Chicago-based company confirmed to the Business Journal that it plans to cut 4,000 positions nationwide by June, including hundreds of executives and managers, but wouldn’t provide specifics on location, area or program.
It appears many of the cuts are targeting the company’s Seattle-based commercial airplane division, which makes 737s, 747s, 777s and business jets, among other aircraft.
“Boeing Commercial Airplanes continues to follow our plan announced last month to make fundamental changes for the long term to win in the market, fund our growth and operate as a healthy business,” said spokesman Doug Alder. “That involves a combination of non-labor cost savings, supply chain savings and reduced staffing levels.”
Boeing is OC’s largest aerospace company, with about 6,470 workers through last April, according to Business Journal research. It has since cut at least 335 positions in Huntington Beach and 420 jobs in Long Beach, according to filings with the California Economic Development Department.
Long Beach was home to a C17 plant, which shuttered last year, ending Southern California’s long history of aircraft assembly.
The company has shed more than 3,000 local positions in the past six years and about half its work force since reaching a peak of about 13,800 in 2000.
The latest developments come as it grows its support centers for commercial airline customers at hubs in Long Beach and Seal Beach. The centers, which opened last year, were to add about 1,000 engineering positions, and ultimately employ about 1,300.
WD Money Move
Irvine-based storage products maker Western Digital Corp. has repriced its bond offering to help fund its highly leveraged $17 billion acquisition of SanDisk Corp. in Milpitas.
The company recently cut the bond package from $5.6 billion to $5.2 billion, shifting more of the offering to the investment-grade market, according to regulatory filings. It’s still considered the largest junk bond offering this year and second largest on record, according to New York-based Dealogic.
In late March WD raised yields by 1% on its bond offering in an effort to sway over investors as it tries to raise $14.1 billion in new debt to fund its priciest deal, which was approved by shareholders last month. The deal created one of the most diversified players in the volatile storage market, with annual sales of about $19.7 billion and combined market cap of $26.1 billion.
Hyundai Car Gets Smarter
The 2017 Hyundai Elantra will feature Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, allowing drivers to interact with car displays in a similar fashion as their smartphones.
The integrations are available on the model’s 7-inch display audio touchscreen system with rearview camera and Hyundai’s 8-inch touchscreen navigation system with voice texting, access to music stored on the phone, and third-party audio apps.
Both versions allow drivers to make calls, get driving directions with traffic conditions, listen to music, access messages and use voice commands.
CarPlay works with the iPhone 5 and models running iOS 7.1 or higher operating systems. Android Auto is compatible with Android phones running Android 5.0, Lollipop or higher operating systems.
Fountain Valley-based Hyundai Motor America, the U.S. unit of Hyundai Motor Co. in South Korea, has been instrumental in integrating the latest tech trends in newer models sold in the U.S.
The Business Journal in November featured Hyundai’s first foray into augmented reality—the Hyundai Virtual Guide, which features 82 how-to videos, more than 50 informational guides, and six 3-D overlay images that appear when users scan certain areas of the vehicle with a smartphone app.
