Fair Isaac Corp., the Minneapolis-based software and analytics company, said Wednesday that it is laying off 200 employees, or 9 percent of its workforce. In Minnesota, 20 workers, or about 6 percent of its 335-person state workforce, will lose their jobs within the next 30 days.
The company also raised its earnings outlook for fiscal 2011. The restructuring, which also includes consolidating some offices and cutting discretionary costs, is part of the company's reengineering efforts, which began in 2008 as the recession dug in and hit Fair Isaac's financial-sector clients hard.
The job cuts mostly affect back-office staff in areas such as human resources and finance, and are designed to make the company "a little bit leaner and meaner," Fair Isaac CEO Mark Greene said in a conference call with analysts.
"It's not meant to send a signal that we're worried about the revenue outlook or the level of demand we see in the marketplace," he said.
Greene said he sees the greatest opportunity in products that help banks and insurance companies predict and detect fraud as well as the tools segment, which helps companies create their own decision management applications. But it may scale back in other areas. The company's flagship credit scoring product was not discussed during the call.
The restructuring will result in a pretax restructuring charge of about $10 million in the company's second quarter of its fiscal year, or 18 cents per share. The company's fiscal year ends in September.
Fair Isaac also said it was revising its earnings forecast for fiscal year 2011 to net income of $70 million to $73 million, up from $65 million to $67 million, and earnings per share of $1.75 to $1.83, up from $1.63 to $1.68.
The news was announced after the market closed. In after-hours trading, Fair Isaac stock was up 3.4 percent, to $26.20.
