MUMBAI: Rightsizing, downsizing call it what you will but that's the name of the game in these troubled times. Leading content distribution systems player Scientific-Atlanta announced yesterday it will be laying off 400 people, or about 6 per cent of the company's total workforce.

While most of the layoffs are effective immediately, some would occur over the next few months, a company release said. The layoffs are not for any particular unit of Scientific Atlanta but from across all the company's operations worldwide.

Scientific-Atlanta says it accepts the layoffs to reduce expenses by approximately $40 million per year.

Justifying the action, the company statement says the decision was necessitated as a fallout of the difficulties the cable industry has been through in the last one year, in which all of the largest cable operators experienced drastic declines in their market capitalizations, and one has filed for bankruptcy protection.