Fidelity to Cut 1,700 Jobs in First Quarter After Firing 1,300 Last Week

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Fidelity Will Eliminate 1,700 More Jobs in Early 2009 (Update2)

By Sree Vidya Bhaktavatsalam

Nov. 14 (Bloomberg) -- Fidelity Investments, the world’s largest mutual-fund manager, will eliminate about 1,700 jobs in the first three months of 2009, adding to dismissals that started this week as it confronts an eroding asset base.

Together, the two rounds of job cuts represent 3,000 employees, or about 7 percent of the company’s 44,400-member workforce, Anne Crowley, a Fidelity spokeswoman, said in an interview today. No decisions have been made on which divisions will dismiss employees or whether fund managers and research analysts will be affected, she said.

“All we have finalized is the number of employees” who will be affected, Crowley said.

The biggest market losses since the Great Depression and investor withdrawals have slashed assets at money-management firms, leading to more than 3,500 firings so far. Janus Capital Group Inc., AllianceBernstein Holding LP, Legg Mason Inc. and Morgan Stanley’s asset-management group also plan to cut jobs.

The global market selloff has reduced Fidelity’s assets under management this year by about 13 percent, to $1.4 trillion from $1.6 trillion through Sept. 30. Stock and bond mutual-fund assets fell 23 percent to $717 billion in the first nine months, according to Financial Research Corp. of Boston.

The firings are bigger than Fidelity’s cutbacks in 2002 following the collapse of the Internet-technology stock boom, when the company eliminated 1,695 jobs, or about 5 percent of its staff. ...........(more)

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