T. Rowe Price lays off 44

T. Rowe Price has cut 44 workers from its staff of about 700 in Colorado Springs.

Companywide 288 were laid off as part of a 5.5 percent staff reduction that was announced along with first quarter earnings results today.

“Broadly speaking, the majority of reductions were in the processing and technology groups,” spokesman Brian Lewbart said. Employees were offered severance packages and outplacement assistance.

In a press release, CEO and president James A. C. Kennedy said that despite productive and prolonged efforts to avoid layoffs, the “historic decline in financial markets has lowered our assets under management, and thus our revenues, to levels last seen in 2005.”

Expenditures for advertising and promotion decreased nearly $14 million or 38 percent, from the first quarter of last year.

The company’s first quarter results included net revenue of $384.5 million, net income of $48.2 million, and diluted earnings per share of $.19. Net cash inflows totaled $4.5 billion, but assets under management are down one-third from a peak of $400 billion during the first quarter of 2008.