Laid-off engineer kills CEO, two others

San Francisco: A man laid off recently from his job in Silicon Valley shot and killed three people, including the CEO of his former company, at an office park on Friday, police in the ailing US technology hub said.

The 47-year-old suspect, identified by police as Jing Wu, was still at large after gunning down two men and a woman shortly before 4pm local time (0000 GMT), Santa Clara, California, police told local media.

The office complex included semiconductor company SiPort Inc. Two of the victims were identified as Sid Agrawal, SiPort chief executive officer, and Brian Pugh, the company's vice-president of operations. A woman was also killed.

Santa Clara Police Lieutenant Mike Sellers said on Saturday they had mounted an intense search for the disgruntled engineer, stopping cars, scouring the office complex and visiting Wu's home, but he had not been found yet.

Cutting costs

As the US economy has weakened, technology companies have joined the rush to cut costs and lay off workers. Sun Microsystems said on Friday it would cut up to 6,000 jobs, 18 per cent of its workforce.

The news came as Citigroup said it plans to shed about 10 per cent of its global workforce.The cuts could result in a loss of roughly 35,000 jobs, based on the bank's reported workforce.