Telstra Corporation Ltd (ASX: TLS) shares are a favourite of SMSF investors in or near the retirement stage and professional fund managers running 'income funds' due to Telstra's big dividend yield. In fact the share price hit a 52-week high of $3.68 this morning on the back of news it might be dialling up more pain for some of its unfortunate employees.
So investors may be turning increasingly bullish on the stock on news reports that the company has a plan to now lay off up to 10,000 workers to help boost its bottom line.
Telstra itself has reported that it plans to lay off around 8,000 workers over the next 3 years as the telco is looking to significantly reduce costs as part of its T22 simplification strategy.
The formerly government-owned giant telco probably has plenty of room to cut costs, so the mooted plan to cut up to 10,000 staff may turn out accurate.
While the cost-savings may prove beneficial to Telstra's profits and share price over the short term, the long-term challenge for the business remains finding ways to replace the permanently lost revenues and earnings from the NBN transition.
Others struggling on the back of the NBN in the telco space include TPG Telecom Ltd (ASX: TPM) and Vocus Group Ltd (ASX: VOC).