UPDATE 1-DuPont cuts jobs in Delaware ahead of Dow merger

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Dec 29 (Reuters) - Chemical maker DuPont (N:DD) Co DD.N said it
would cut 1,700 jobs in Delaware, as part of a previously
announced plan to reduce its workforce before combining with Dow
Chemical Co DOW.N in a $130 billion megamerger.
The job cuts in the state, which has been its home for more
than 213 years, will take place in the beginning of 2016, DuPont
Chief Executive Ed Breen said in a letter to the company's
employees on Tuesday.
DuPont said earlier in the month that it was planning to
slash about 10 percent of its workforce of about 63,000 and take
a pretax charge of $780 million.
Breen said the company decided to announce the jobs cuts now
as it was legally required to file a notice with the Delaware
State government, detailing the expected local job reductions by
Dec. 31.
"Especially given that we are in the middle of the holidays,
we would have preferred to wait until individual notifications
were complete before reporting the full local impact," Breen
said in the letter.
Delaware Governor Jack Markell said in a statement that the
news of the job cuts was "deeply disappointing." (http://1.usa.gov/1JebQQE)
DuPont and Dow Chemical agreed to merge in an all-stock
deal earlier this month in a first step towards breaking up into
three separate businesses.
The three-way split into material sciences, specialty
products, and seeds and agrichemicals, is likely to occur 18 to
24 months after the deal closes.
The combined specialty products business of the two
companies will remain headquartered in Wilmington, Delaware
after the merger, Breen said in the letter.
The deal, however, is expected to face intense regulatory
scrutiny, especially over combining their agricultural
businesses, which sell seeds and crop protection chemicals,
including insecticides and pesticides.