Azzurri Communications is contacting staff later today to confirm rumours it is about to make a number of redundancies.
The voice, data and mobile managed service provider has been rumoured to be in the process of laying off some 200 of its 900-strong workforce.
A source close to the business told IT PRO: "While Azzurri can confirm it's making redundancies, it will be considerably less than has been speculated and the company is contacting staff this afternoon to keep them fully informed."
The statement sent to staff, as seen by IT PRO, said: "As you will be aware a number of people across the company were spoken to on Monday to advise them that their role was at risk. We spoke to 84 people in total."
The statement continued: "These employees are now in consultation with us, which gives them the opportunity to discuss their selection, offer suggestions to reduce the numbers being made redundant and discuss any alternative employment within the company. Following the consultation meetings we will investigate any issues raised and confirm the redundancies to be made on Friday 4 April."
The source added: "It has also identified a number of other cost savings as a result of consultation with staff that is part of a programme of consolidation and elimination of duplication across the organisation following a number of acquisitions."
Formed in 2000, the Newbury-based company's position as one of the UK's largest independent virtual network operators (VNOs) with an annual turnover of 150m is indeed the product of an aggressive acquisition strategy. It has bought 16 telecommunications companies, culminating in its last and biggest acquisition of UK VNO Sirocom in November 2006.
Keith Humphreys, a consultant with networking analyst euroLAN Research, told IT PRO he was surprised Azzurri was claiming the redundancies were purely as a result of consolidation following its acquisition spree. "I would wonder then why it's taken them so long," he said, adding that "it suggests they have been living with a bloated workforce for a long time".
But he also said: "It makes sense to rationalise the workforce as it moves from voice and network operations to a managed services model, which will mean much bigger deals that need a different type of organisational structure and recompense for sales teams certainly."
"But I'm not so sure the model itself is not as solid, as it's been said that a lot of managed services customers are looking at re-negotiating deals in reaction to possible economic recession."
Azzurri had not responded to comment at the time of writing.
