Reuters poised to cut 1,000 jobs

THE pips are squeaking at Reuters. The financial information group, which warned in mid-October that trading conditions were getting worse amid no signs of an upturn, is set to axe a further 1,000 jobs as part of a major new cost-cutting drive.

Chief executive Tom Glocer should confirm the staff cuts alongside full-year results next month. He is also expected to announce reductions in the group's finance, administration and software development departments, which are likely to add up to a restructuring charge of around £150m this year.

Reuters' main customers - banks and brokers - have slashed jobs, and cut back on Reuters' desktop terminals.

A major blow came in November when US giant Merrill Lynch withdrew from talks aimed at Reuters supplying its next generation of retail brokerage work stations.

With the CBI predicting tens of thousands more job cuts in the financial services industry during the first quarter, short-term prospects for Reuters' shareholders look gloomy - unless a bidder appears.

RICHARD Lapthorne, the newly appointed chairman of Cable & Wireless, is reported to be planning a cull of non-executive directors at the struggling telecoms group. Lapthorne obviously wants to rebuild investor confidence quickly. Sir Win Bischoff, Raymond Seitz and Janet Morgan's days as directors are believed to be numbered, but it is the head of chief executive Graham Wallace that the City really wants.