Definitely not unprecedented. But, at least in my recollection, definitely not as farcical in the past. Maybe I was younger and more naive. Maybe without social media in all its various forms, the rumor mill wasn't as efficient. I watched the layoffs in 1999 happen seemingly out of the blue (http://www.apnewsarchive.com/1999/Qualcomm-To-Lay-Off-Nearly-700/id-2d7a016956e70e8a02ddce6e940d153d) Not really a layoff, but the Ericsson sale was what triggered the options lawsuit (http://articles.latimes.com/1999/may/03/business/fi-33522); the sale of the phone unit to Kyocera was a separate transaction (http://www.cnet.com/news/qualcomm-narrows-focus-sells-handset-business/). There seemed to be a few smaller layoffs in the 2000's - probably under the WARN threshold. However, since the mid 2000's until recently, the layoffs I was aware of all involved non-engineering folks (business development, product management, technical writers, IT, etc.) Engineers tended to get shuffled around different projects unless they were egregiously incompetent. I'd say things turned a corner with the 600 layoff announcement last year. Engineers (even the good ones) aren't safe anymore. In some cases the babies are getting thrown out with the bathwater. I hear a lot of "it's not the same company as it was 5/10/15 years ago". Kinda sad, really.
Anonymous119575