Intel Slashing Its Workforce By 5% And Expand Its Scope To More Mobile Devices Throughout 2014

Intel has confirmed that it will be cutting its global workforce of 107,000 by about five percent in 2014 in light of the chip-maker's struggle to sell more personal-computers. The company will look to reprioritize toward faster-growing areas.

"Employment will come down by about five percent," Intel spokesperson Chris Kraeuter confirmed to ZDNet. "I can confirm that we're making critical decisions to align our resources to meet the needs of our business."

So far the company has declined to comment regarding questions that would hint at which departments and geographical regions would be affected. Kraeuter noted that "we re-prioritized some activities" and that the layoffs will progress over the course of the entire year.

The announcement comes day after Intel posted its fourth-quarter earnings report that did very little did very little to dispel people's concerns that the personal PC industry is slowing to a point of being non-profitable anymore.

According to Reuters, Chief Financial Officer Stacy Rasgon alluded to a reduction in employment this year in a conference call to analysts on Thursday. She went on to say that Intel would increase investments in areas like data center, low-power chips and tablets.

CEO Brian Krzanich admitted during the conference call that enterprise figures didn't live up to expectations because Intel "overestimated the rate of recovery among corporate buyers." He also warned them that the process of recuperating the company following its dip in sales might take the entire span of 2014.

Intel is a dominant force in the personal PC chip industry but it has been slow to adapt its business and development model to make its processors for smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices. Those markets are now being dominated by Intel's rivals like Qualcomm and Samsung. Krzanich said that he hoped to increase the amount of tablets the company makes from 10 million to 40 million. Following the news of Intel's five percent personnel cut, Reuters reports that shares of Intel took a dip of 3.45 percent at $26.62.