Marconi's chairman and chief executive have resigned after the company issued its second profit warning in two months and announced a further 2,000 job losses.

These job cuts come on top of the 8,000 already announced this year.

Six hundred of the latest redundancies will be in the UK. It is not known yet whether these new redundancies will affect Marconi's plant in Coventry.

Chief executive Lord Simpson and chairman Sir Roger Hurn are standing down and Mike Parton, head of the company's networks division, has been appointed chief executive.

The financial fortunes of the company have darkened further as it revealed that it expects to make a half-year operating loss following losses of £227 million in the first quarter of the year.

This contrasts with the break-even projection predicted in its previous profit warning in early July.

The company hopes the latest reductions in staff numbers will help it save around £600 million in costs a year - up from the previously planned £350 million.

Now union bosses are demanding talks with Marconi to determine the company's future. They had emergency meetings with the company after the last round of cuts to seek reassurance that no more losses were planned.

Danny Carrigan, the chairman of Marconi's trade union committee and the AEEU national officer says:

"This comes as a major blow to employees. It was completely unexpected and follows on from thousands of previous redundancies.

"The company is clearly in turmoil and I have requested an emergency meeting with the directors of the company to clarify the implications for our members and where the job losses will fall."

The latest staff cuts will see Marconi's job numbers fall to around 29,000 by March 2002 - a 25% drop from the 39,000 employed in March this year.

Marconi's share price on the London Stock Exchange rallied a few points this morning - bouyed partly by the major industry news of Hewlett Packard's takeover of Compaq. But today's share price at around 56p is still a long, long way off the £12 mark it stood at just 12 months ago.

SEE ALSO: [10 APR 01] MARCONI JOB CUTS HIT COVENTRY