NEW YORK (Reuters) - Specialty glass maker Corning Inc said its quarterly profit fell sharply due to a significant decline in demand for glass for televisions and computer monitors, and said it would cut about 3,500 jobs.
Corning, whose glass is used for flat-panel displays and fiber-optic cables, said on Tuesday its fourth quarter net income fell to $249 million, or 16 cents a share, from $768 million, or 49 cents a share, a year earlier.
Excluding special items, the profit was 13 cents a share, a 70 percent drop from the same period one year ago.
As the economy has declined, demand from manufacturers for liquid crystal displays in flat-panel televisions and computer displays has decreased. The slowdown has been particularly harsh among Corning's customers in Taiwan,
As a result, revenue for Corning, named for Corning, New York, where it began as a glass maker more than 150 years ago, fell 30 percent to $1.1 billion in the fourth quarter.
(Reporting by Franklin Paul; Editing by Derek Caney)
