Restructuring events
European Restructuring Monitor (ERM)
The restructuring events database contains factsheets with data on large-scale restructuring events reported in the principal national media and company websites in each EU Member State. This database was created in 2002.
The leading pharmaceutical company Merck announced an important worldwide reorganisation plan which should include some 7,000 redundancies out of total 62,000 group's employees and the closure of five of its 31 worldwide manufacturing plants, as well as one basic research site and two preclinical development sites, by 2008, with a view to realise cost savings of around $4 billion by the end of the decade. About half of the reductions are expected to occur in the United States, while the remainder will involve its worldwide operations, which include a number of locations in Europe. The reorganisation will include diversification of suppliers and the outsourcing of some of the production activities. In mid-December 2005, the company disclosed some elements of its new strategic plan and increased its cost-reduction target to some $5 billion by 2010.
Eurofound (2005), Merck, Internal restructuring in World, factsheet number 62731, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://apps.eurofound.europa.eu/restructuring-events/detail/62731.