[markveronda]

The Colorado-based firm plans to eliminate 875 jobs, or about one-quarter of its workforce, by end-2017, so it can better compete against SpaceX and other rivals, including the Jeff Bezos-backed...

Is anyone else here confused by how exactly cutting 1/4 of their workforce will make them more competitive? I get being lean and all that, but still...

[mseebach]

You decide on the one or two areas where you have a shot of actually competing, and then you shed as much weight as possible outside those areas.

It's like when IBM sold their consumer PC and laptop business to Lenovo. The analysis was that the consumer business was essentially commoditised and IBMs core value proposition is in high-value-added servers and services -- the laptops were a distraction.

(In reality, IBMs core value proposition is being IBM, so they could probably have carried on selling ridiculously marked up ThinkPads to the enterprise and government market)

[jdavis703]

Perhaps these were departments focused on areas that are no longer of competive interest.