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Since initiating major restructuring efforts in 2002 that included a workforce reduction of 193 employees as its low-power microprocessors failed to gain widespread market acceptance, Transmeta has continued to morph into an IP licensing business model.

The company has now announced a further round of heavy job cuts, primarily within its design engineering services department, as this work is being scaled down due to the huge presence of such companies as Sony and Microsoft.

"After a critical evaluation of all our lines of businesses, we have decided that IP development and licensing will be our core business activity going forward," said Lester Crudele, president and CEO.  "We continue to believe that this is the best way for us to deliver our technology to the market and monetize our investments. Therefore, we have initiated a restructuring plan to re-align our headcount and expenses accordingly."

Initially, this will mean a workforce reduction of 75 employees - 39 percent of its current workforce of approximately 194. This was down from 221 in September 2006. However, the company also stated that a further round of job losses of 25 to 55 would follow this phase with more existing engineering services jobs being eradicated.

The result could mean a headcount reduction of over 80 percent, should the higher second phase redundancies be implemented, and over 100 percent since September 2006.