Limited Brands cuts staff to focus on lingerie and beauty

When it is all said and done the company expects to see about 530 corporate jobs eliminated. The impact of this corporate restructuring is going to start to be felt next year when the company estimates that it will be able to save $100 million a year.

Limited announced last month that it had decided the timing was right to sell off roughly two-thirds of its holding interest in Express for $548 million. This sale is expected to close on the 6th of next month, and now it looks as though the company is shopping around for buyers for another one of its core holdings, its Limited Stores chain. The company announced today that it's currently reviewing the possibility of selling Limited Stores, but no details were given as to the chances that this would happen, or the percentage of the company that it would be willing to part with.

Getting out of Express and Limited Stores definitely won't be too big a drag on the company. During its fiscal year 2006, Limited Brands pulled in a total of $10.7 billion in sales. Express and Limited Stores were only a fraction of total sales, combining for $2.2 billion during the year.

With the company leaning more towards its lingerie and beauty businesses I wonder if that means we can start to expect 10 Victoria's Secret catalogs in the mail each month instead of the 5 that we have grown accustomed to over the last 10 years!

Michael Fowlkes has worked as a stock trader for seven years and spent the last two years working as an analyst for the online investment advisory service Investor's Observer.