Intel Corp., acknowledging that its management structure had become bloated, has decided to lay off 1,000 managers to improve efficiency, The Wall Street Journal report on Friday.

Intel, which had about 103,000 employees at the end of March, said the job reductions would affect all levels of management and all geographies.

The Santa Clara, Calif., company, which will report second- quarter results Wednesday, said it may announce further cost- cutting moves following the management reduction, the first in its 38-year history, according to the report.

Paul Otellini, Intel's chief executive officer, in late April announced plans for a top-to-bottom review of Intel's operations.

On Thursday, he said the review had found that the number of managers in the past five years had grown faster, proportionally, than Intel's total headcount, bogging down decision making.

"We have done extremely well over the past 25 years of the PC era," Otellini wrote. "But we need to adjust now for where our industry is going."

Otellini predicted tougher competition and "aggressive pricing, " an environment that last week contributed to AMD's announcement that second-quarter revenue would be lower than expected.

"Our objective, and our destiny, is to refashion Intel now while we have the means and the time to do so, and ensure we continue to remain number one," he wrote.

Analysts have been expecting substantial work-force reductions from the company, and do not expect the cuts to stop here.

Tim Luke, an analyst at Lehman Brothers, predicted in a research note that Intel might trim about 10,000 employees as part of the review, which he expects to continue into August.

Source: Xinhua