Viacom to Lay Off 850

In an effort to cut costs, Viacom announced today that it will be restructuring its organization, resulting in layoffs of 850, or 7 percent of its staff, that will be implemented across all divisions of the company, as well as suspending pay increases for senior management in 2009.

In a release, Viacom said that the changes would result in a pre-tax charge of $400 million to $450 million in the fourth quarter of 2008, and it expected to yield a pre-tax savings of $200 million to $250 million in 2009.

The list of companies experiencing layoffs since September is too lengthy to list here, but in just the past month, Akamai, Qik, Strands, TiVo, Current and BitTorrent have let people go.

UPDATE: When it rains, it pours. AT&T said it is laying off 4 percent, or 12,000 jobs, through the end of 2009. Though, as The Wall Street Journal reports, the telco said it will be adding positions to its video, wireless and broadband divisions to keep up with demand.