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Nova Measuring Instruments Ltd. will reduce its headcount by 8 percent or approximately 20 employees based on 2005 official figures of 239 employees. The job losses are mainly within its R&D and operations department based in Israel and are part of a previously announced structural change to improve its field support infrastructure.
 
The company had over 60 percent of sales in North America in 2005, according to SEC filings. They expect to generate cost savings of approximately $2 million in 2007.

"Taking this action, although difficult, is important in order to bring the new organization into strategic balance," said Gabi Seligsohn, President and CEO of Nova. "Recently, we have continued the localization initiative, which we began last year. This initiative involved increasing headcount for customer support and sales in specific regions and we are already witnessing the positive results it has generated, as evidenced by our business results in the first nine months of 2006. Beyond the addition of people where needed, we have had to adjust to lower expenses in some other areas. This was done in order to fit to a new set of requirements, as we accelerate the penetration of our new offerings and begin developing our next generation of products. The new management team has acted as quickly as possible to complete this organizational realignment in order to reduce our breakeven point and accelerate the attainment of our business goals."

Nova recently made changes to its management structure, and has also offered some of its technology patents up for license via auction.