Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, April 12, 1994 TAG: 9404120124
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: C-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The company closed a previously announced deal at the end of March, selling its business in 29 states outside the Southeast to WilTel. BellSouth Communication intends to concentrate its efforts in the nine-state service area where its parent company, BellSouth Corp. of Atlanta, provides local telephone service. Terms of the sale were not disclosed. The regional company operates in Georgia, Florida, the Carolinas, Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, Tennessee and Kentucky.
BellSouth Communication specializes in the sale, installation and maintenance of multiline telephone equipment, such as that used by schools or businesses.
Thirty-six of BellSouth Communication's employees in Roanoke were transferred to WilTel as part of the deal, said Jeff Nichols, director of marketing. Twenty were laid off by WilTel but may be offered other jobs with the company.
When the pending sale was announced in February, BellSouth Communication said it thought about two dozen employees would be affected.
BellSouth Communication also "surplused" 23 of its remaining employees in Roanoke as part of the downsizing, meaning they were laid off immediately or will be laid off during the new few months, Nichols said. Those employees will "get the first shot" at any new jobs that open up within the company, he said.
Nationwide, BellSouth Communication lost 900 employees either to the sale to WilTel or to layoffs following the sale. BellSouth Communication now has 1,079 employees. It said its employment in the Roanoke Valley will be about 200 people.
BellSouth Communication's employees in Roanoke perform administrative and managerial work. But the fact that Virginia is no longer in the company's service area raises questions about its future in Roanoke.
"We have no plans right now to move those departments," Nichols said. "That doesn't mean it won't happen in the future."
People laid off from WilTel and BellSouth Communication will have similar severance packages, Nichols said.
|By GREG EDWARDS| |STAFF WRITER|
BellSouth Communication Systems Inc. said Monday 43 employees at its headquarters office in Roanoke have been laid off or face layoffs as the result of company downsizing, including sale of a large portion of its business to WilTel Communications Systems Inc. of Houston.
The company closed a previously announced deal at the end of March, selling its business in 29 states outside the Southeast to WilTel. BellSouth Communication intends to concentrate its efforts in the nine-state service area where its parent company, BellSouth Corp. of Atlanta, provides local telephone service. Terms of the sale were not disclosed. The regional company operates in Georgia, Florida, the Carolinas, Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, Tennessee and Kentucky.
BellSouth Communication specializes in the sale, installation and maintenance of multiline telephone equipment, such as that used by schools and businesses.
Thirty-six of BellSouth Communication's employees in Roanoke were transferred to WilTel as part of the deal, said Jeff Nichols, director of marketing. Twenty were laid off by WilTel but may be offered other jobs with the company.
When the pending sale was announced in February, BellSouth Communication said it thought about two dozen employees would be affected.
BellSouth Communication also "surplused" 23 of its remaining employees in Roanoke as part of the downsizing, meaning they were laid off immediately or will be laid off during the new few months, Nichols said. Those employees will "get the first shot" at any new jobs that open up within the company, he said.
Nationwide, BellSouth Communication lost 900 employees either to the sale to WilTel or to layoffs following the sale. BellSouth Communication now has 1,079 employees. It said its employment in the Roanoke Valley will be about 200 people.
BellSouth Communication's employees in Roanoke perform administrative and managerial work. But the fact that Virginia is no longer in the company's service area raises questions about its future in Roanoke.
"We have no plans right now to move those departments," Nichols said. "That doesn't mean it won't happen in the future."
People laid off from WilTel and BellSouth Communication will have similar severance packages, Nichols said.
by CNB