Windstream To Cut Up To 400 Management Jobs

Extended layoffs have been widely expected since $6 billion Windstream acquired fellow service provider Paetec last year. The 375 to 400 management jobs Windstream projects being cut amount to about 3 percent of its approximately 14,500 employees.

Jeff Gardner, Windstream president and CEO, said the move is about management redundancy.

[Related: Windstream Charts Channel Course After Paetec Purchase ]

"Windstream has grown rapidly through acquisition and it is crucial that our management structure be as simple and as responsive to customers as possible as we continue to build this company for long-term success," Gardner said in a statement.

Gardner added that Windstream began planning the cuts as far back as December, right after the Paetec acquisition was completed. Windstream already completed an initial round of about 280 layoffs, focused on operational employees primarily in Paetec's former Rochester, N.Y.-based headquarters, earlier this spring.

Paetec was the largest in a series of acquisitions made by Windstream, which has bought five other service providers in the past two years alone.