More than 12,000 jobs are likely to be eliminated in SBC's planned acquisition of AT&T announced this week.

Among the more than 12,000 jobs cut will be 5,125 networking jobs, 5,000 sales-related jobs and 2,600 corporate headquarters jobs, SBC spokesman Wes Warnock said Tuesday. Those numbers don't include an 8% planned reduction in IT-related jobs at the combined company; Warnock didn't immediately have an estimate of how many IT jobs would be affected.

The new job cuts are on top of a decrease of 7,000 SBC positions planned this year. SBC announced in January it would cut those jobs through attrition. AT&T announced in late 2004 it planned to cut 12,500 jobs, or about 20% of its workforce.

SBC expects that most of the acquisition-related job cuts can also be achieved through attrition and will be phased in over three years, Warnock said. The two companies currently lose about 1,200 employees a month through attrition, he said. SBC, based in San Antonio, Texas, has not yet decided what geographic regions the job cuts will come from.

"It's natural that when two companies go through this, we get productivity improvements that lead to this kind of thing," Warnock added.

SBC officials have said that the combined company will be able to eventually achieve $15 billion in cost savings, with up to $2 billion a year by 2008, by combining functions such as IT, sales and headquarters support. SBC on Monday announced its bid to acquire AT&T in a deal worth $16 billion.

The deal faces review by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission, the U.S. Department of Justice and more than 20 state public utilities commissions.

The IDG News Service is a Network World affiliate.