In its second-quarter results posted Tuesday, Adecco SA, world's staffing biggie that supplies temporary workers, reported an unexpected net loss of euro147 million, largely due to the euro246 million in charges that the company took for impaired goodwill and job cuts.

Adecco's quarterly loss figures - which were a shocker for the analysts projecting a euro50 million profit during the quarter - were a dramatic plunge from the last year same quarter mammoth profit of euro212 million.

The Glattbrugg, Switzerland-based Adecco also reported a 32 percent plunge in year-on-year revenue to euro3.6 billion, with revenue from its core market, France, dropping 10 percent to euro1.18 billion. The company's quarterly sales dropped 31 percent to 3.6 billion euros.

However, Adecco CEO Patrick De Maeseneire reiterated the company's positive outlook, and said that it was well-placed both to meet the challenges of the present difficult economic scenario as well as to benefit "when the upswing materializes."

De Maeseneire said: "The pressure on the revenue decline rate has eased in most markets over the course of Q2 2009."

Meanwhile, Adecco has also announced an acquisition bid for its London-based rival Spring Group PLC, which undertakes employment of professional workers for technology companies. Adecco said on Tuesday that it intends offering Spring 62 pence per share - thereby putting the company's value at nearly 108 million pounds.