Intel seems to have finally taken its economic future seriously in wake of the company anticipating a red quarter, which is the first in 22 years. This announcement comes following CEO Paul Otellini's statements pointing towards the company seeing red in Q1 2009, this merely a month into the quarter. In the latest statement issued, the company pointed out that around 5,000 of its employees (around 6,000 when combined with associated support functions) will be affected as part of the company's workforce reduction plans. The employees are from across various positions and divisions of the company.

Additionally, terming it as corporate restructuring, Intel will cease operations in as many as four facilities at: Santa Clara in California, Hillsboro in Oregon, Penang in Malaysia and Cavite in Philippines. The company attributes this to severe drops in profits. For example, Intel's least week's earnings saw a 90 percent drop in profits from the same point in 2008. Craig Berger of FBR Capital Markets was among several analysts Wednesday who said he wouldn't be surprised if Intel falls in red this quarter. "We have seen pretty significant deterioration in demand" for computer chips, he said, though he added that no one , including probably Intel's top executives, can predict where the company is heading in the coming months, due to a great deal of uncertainty with the world economy. If Intel does suffer a loss this quarter, it's still in a lot better shape than most other chip makers and should have no trouble surviving the recession, said Nathan Brookwood, a research fellow at the Saratoga market consulting firm Insight 64. "If Intel can't do OK in the longer term," he said, "then the United States economy and the world economy are in one heck of a lot of trouble."