Covad cuts staff

Covad Communications cut 8% of its workforce in the second quarter, the company announced today.

About 50 employees have been dismissed, a spokesman said, with another 24 or so leaving voluntarily. The broadband provider now has about 850 employees.

The company expects to report a $1.5 million restructuring charge for the second quarter and net savings of about $4 million in the second half of the year.

Covad lost about 4% of its workforce in the first quarter, reporting 967 employees at the end of last year and 925 at the end of March.

Earlier this month, the company announced the launch of ADSL2+ services in 11 major markets, with downstream speeds of 15 Mb/s, 10 Mb/s and 8 Mb/s and upstream speeds of 1 Mb/s. Uncertainty over the new services has hampered the company’s visibility for the year. In February, it predicted its net revenue would grow 3% to 10% this year, to between $490 million and $525 million, and that its net loss for the year would grow 7% to 182%, to between $15 million to $39.5 million.

On Monday the company named a new chief financial officer, Justin Spencer, who had been interim CFO since April and joined the company in 2002.