NEW YORK / DUBLIN - American data storage multinational company Seagate Technology Plc is planning to lay off 2 percent of its workforce or cut 1,050 jobs as part of a restructuring programme that is expected to save around $113 million annually.

The Dublin based technology giant, which has about 52,200 employees worldwide, expects that savings will accrue from the restructuring after accounting for the pretax charges, mostly employee termination costs, of about $53 million in the quarter ending September 30, the company stated Thursday in its listings.

The company expects majority of cash payments, including to the employees, to be paid in the quarter ending on 31 December.

The restructuring plan is "intended to realign cost structure with the current macroeconomic business environment", Seagate stated. It expects the downsizing move to be completed by the end of the December quarter.

In July, Seagate cut guidance for the current quarter. For its third quarter ending 3 April, Seagate reported net profit of $291 million, down from $933 million in its previous quarter, on sales of $3.3 billion, down 10 percent sequentially.

The latest results were hit by "near-term macro uncertainty", stated Steve Luczo, Seagate CEO.

The downsizing move by the company follows dip in sales for the past two quarters, hurt by weak demand from original equipment manufacturers, including PC makers.

Research firm International Data Corp (IDC) has forecast a bigger drop in 2015 PC shipments than it had anticipated earlier due to a large inventory of notebooks and a strong dollar. Back in July, IDC reported a near 12 percent year-over-year decline in PC sales. Last month it revised the forecast to 8.7 percent drop in PC shipments in 2015, with stabilization not expected until 2017.

To cushion the impact of a declining PC market, Seagate like its rival Western Digital has stepped up focus on the growing market for cloud data storage products.

Even as Seagate is restructuring, last month it announced plans to buy Dot Hill Systems Corp, a supplier of hardware and software solutions, in a deal worth US$694 million, aimed at bolstering Seagate's computer cloud software offerings, reported proactiveinvestors.com.

Seagate's shares increased 2.90 percent on Wednesday to close at $49.61.