NBI Inc, with Steve Jerrits newly installed at the helm, is firing 13% of its workforce in an effort to reduce its operating costs by $10m a year. The Boulder, Colorado office automation systems manufacturer says that 146 of its 1,145 US employees and 28 of its 200 international workforce are out on the street. It is also consolidating training operations and closing some sales offices. In the nine months to March, NBI reported an $10.7m operating loss on turnover of $105.4m. One bit of good news for the incumbent management is that Fisher Investments, Woodside, California, which notified a 5.5% stake in January with a view to shaking the company up, says that NBI has now done pretty much all that it had in mind for the company, and that it therefore now intends to be just a passive investor.