Qualcomm is transferring workers from its consumer products and personal electronics divisions to Kyocera and a Qualcomm subsidiary as part of the sale, which was announced last month, Qualcomm spokeswoman Christine Trimble said.

Before the cuts, there were 4,000 workers in both divisions. Trimble said she didn't have the exact number of lost jobs, but said it was less than 1,000.

Kyocera Wireless Corp., the new division formed by the sale, needed to cut the payroll to make the unit profitable, spokesman Jay Scovie said.

"Kyocera regrets that we couldn't offer employment to all the employees ... but the reductions were inevitable and necessary to move the business into a profitable condition," Scovie said.

The sale is scheduled to close next month, pending regulatory approval, allowing Kyocera to continue manufacturing at Qualcomm's San Diego plant without pause, Scovie said.

"We started the notification process this afternoon," Trimble said Thursday. "We should be finished with the majority of them by tomorrow."

Several hundred of the permanent and temporary employees in the personal electronics unit, which developed equipment that supported Qualcomm's wireless phones, were not hired by Kyocera, Trimble said.

Affected employees will receive severance packages and assistance in finding new jobs, Trimble said. Details were not released.

Trimble said the employees have less than a month left on the job. The cuts leave Qualcomm with 7,000 employees.

As part of the deal, Kyocera agreed to purchase a majority of its semiconductor chip sets over the next five years from Qualcomm, whose code division multiple access, or CDMA, technology has become the industry standard.

The deal allows Qualcomm to focus on its profitable chip business and technology licensing agreements while helping Kyocera to begin making consumer phones for the general U.S. market.

Qualcomm's consumer products division has produced more than 14 million phones since it began operations in 1995. Its customers include AirTouch, Bell Atlantic Mobile, Spring PCS and U.S. West.

The unit had fiscal 1999 revenues of $1.4 billion, more than one-third of the company's overall $3.9 billion in revenue.

Kyocera, which had sales in fiscal year 1999 of $6.1 billion, produces Yashica cameras and laser printers. It is one of two manufacturers of Iridium satellite phones.