Fremont, Calif. - Logitech International (Nasdaq: LOGI) on Tuesday reported that it has scraped its fiscal year 2009 growth targets for sales and operating income due to the deepening global recession. The world's largest maker of computer mice is also expected to slash 15 percent of its non-manufacturing jobs.

The technology companies have been suffering led by lower sales as the global markets lost trillion dollars in stock value on lowering liquidity in money markets. The sales of major firms like Logitech have also slipped on tightening IT budgets set by the businesses and cut back by the consumers on their spending across the world.

“During the December quarter, the retail environment deteriorated significantly,” Gerald P. Quindlen, Logitech president and chief executive officer, said in a statement on Tuesday.

Quindlen added, “We experienced varying degrees of weakness across all geographies and channels as our customers reduced inventory levels in the face of weaker consumer demand. Moreover, we expect the economic environment to worsen in the coming months and we are therefore taking significant actions to align our cost structure with what is likely to be an extended downturn.”

The company did not provide revised targets, but said that it would update investors on business conditions and performance during its briefing on third-quarter results on Jan. 20.

But Logitech said that the associated restructuring charge will be announced with the company’s third quarter fiscal year 2009 report. The charges will be booked in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2009. The company expects that the savings from the restructuring will begin to show in the first quarter of fiscal year 2010, the statement said.

In the month of October, the company said for fiscal 2009, ending March 31, its growth would be up to 8 percent in sales and up to 5 percent in operating income, which was revised from the original target of 15 percent growth for both. At that time, the company also expected 2009 gross margin to be above its long-term target range of 32 percent to 34 percent.

In today's statement, in addition to existing cost-cutting measures, Logitech said it plans to hand out pink slips to its non-production or salaried work force of around 3,500 by about 500 workers, or around 15 percent. The company employs as many as 9,000 workers, according to its statement.

“Although the external environment is more challenging than anything we’ve experienced before, we believe Logitech is very well positioned to manage through this downturn,” said Quindlen.

He added that the company has "a strong cash position" with no debt, as it continues to maintain market share across multiple segments and geographies. The company remains confident in its strategy for driving long-term double-digit growth and believes that the current actions will result in an even stronger Logitech when the economic recovery begins, according to him.

Logitech Chairman Guerrino De Luca told Dow Jones Newswires in an interview on Tuesday that the decline in demand, which isn't related to specific products, is a result of "dramatic reductions in inventories of our customers based both on lower consumer demand and on their expectations of a downturn."

"I expect 2009 to be an economic crisis year as much as 2008 was a financial crisis year," De Luca added, with no further details on the outlook.

The Romanel-sur-Morges, Switzerland-based company, which also has an office in Fremont, California, manufactures computer mice, keyboards and videogame accessories. The company also manufactures speakers for Apple Inc.’s iPod digital music player.

Shares of the firm were moving down by 95 cents or 5.90 percent to $15.16 in pre-market session on NASDAQ market, after it closed higher by 4 cents or 0.25 percent to $16.11 yesterday. The stock of the firm has traded as low as $11.10 and as high as $34.38 in the last 52-week period with average volume of 986,200.