For more on the financial crisis, check outGlobeSt.com's Webinar, "Wall Street In a Freefall—TheWinners and Losers."

ZURICH, SWITZERLAND-UBS, based here, will lay off 2,000employees, mostly in the US and the UK, due to troubles brought onby investing too heavily in the US sub-prime mortgage market. Thecompany reportedly has written down about $42 billion from thesub-prime crisis, and has restructured to avoid inter-departmentborrowing that helped lead to the write-downs.A spokesman for thefirm tells GlobeSt.com that the company will also cut backsubstantially on its real estate divisions, though UBSfund-sponsored projects will continue as planned. "We're justcutting back on the financing side, to preserve our corestrengths," he says.

Jerker Johannson, chairman and CEO of the company, said in astatement Friday that the ongoing crisis in the financial marketsand dramatically-changed industry dynamics forced the firm torecalibrate its business. "While the revenue outlook is uncertain,these measures will allow us to focus on our strengths, reduce thecost base to a more sustainable level and position our corebusinesses for growth once fundamentals improve," he said in thestatement.