Danaher to cut 1700 jobs; close 13 plants

H. Lawrence Culp, Jr., President and Chief Executive Officer, stated, "Global economic conditions have continued to deteriorate over the last several weeks impacting many of our customers as well as a number of our businesses. In addition, the strengthening of the dollar against other global currencies has created additional headwinds that will negatively impact our financial results. However, we still expect continued strong free cash flow performance in the fourth quarter." "In order to better position the company in light of the current economic backdrop we are deploying approximately $90 million of restructuring investments in the fourth quarter, eliminating approximately 1700 net positions and 13 facilities. We are expecting these investments to generate approximately $100 million of savings in 2009. In addition, we have implemented a wage and salary freeze across most of our geographies and businesses. We believe these actions coupled with our high quality portfolio, our talented organization and our Danaher Business System, provide us the ability to outperform during these challenging times.”