Sony Mobile plans to lay off 15 percent of employees and move its headquarters to Tokyo.
The downsizing is estimated to affect 1,000 workers and consultants by the end of March 2014.
Sony Mobile’s current headquarters in Lund, Sweden will be hit the hardest by the cutbacks, where about 650 workers are expected to be laid off. The remaining layoffs will mostly affect Sweden-based consultants to the company.
Sony bought out the Ericsson’s half stake in the Sony Ericsson handset joint venture in February, renaming the unit Sony Mobile.
After the division lost $357 million last quarter, it is now taking steps to run the business more efficiently and work more closely with its primary operations in Japan.
“We are accelerating the integration and convergence with the wider Sony group to continue enhancing our offerings, and a more focused and efficient operational structure will help to reduce Sony Mobile’s costs, enhance time to market efficiency and bring the business back to a place of strength,” Sony Mobile President and CEO Kunimasa Suzuki said in a statement.
Sony Mobile is not completely exiting operations in Lund, and plans to use its facility there for software and application development.
The cuts at Sony Mobile are just a fraction of the layoffs Sony announced in April, when it said it would shear 10,000 positions from its global workforce shortly after doubling its projected annual losses.
Overall, Sony’s losses widened to $315 million in its first fiscal quarter despite a slight increase in sales. The results were dragged down in part by heavy losses in its mobile division.
When Sony Mobile was still operating as a joint venture, it struggled to become profitable, losing $266 million in its last quarter as Sony Ericsson. The company faces steep competition from larger handset manufacturers Samsung and Apple, which have come to dominate the smartphone market.
Filed Under: Devices
