Sony Mobile to Lay Off 1,000 Employees
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AFP/AFP/Getty Images(NEW YORK) — Sony Mobile Communications announced Thursday that it plans to lay off 15 percent of its workforce, approximately 1,000 employees, by 2014. The decision will mainly affect employees stationed at Sony Mobile’s headquarters in Lund, Sweden.
In October, the division’s headquarters will also relocate from Sweden to Toyko. The Lund offices will remain, with a focus on mobile software and application development.
In a statement, the president and CEO of Sony Mobile, Kunimasa Suzuki, said, “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.”
Last February, Sony acquired full ownership of Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications and renamed the company Sony Mobile. Today’s announcement signals an effort to streamline operations at the struggling mobile division, which has lagged behind such competitors as Apple and Samsung. Sony Mobile Communications’ flagship product is the Xperia line of smartphones. In the rough-and-tumble smartphone marketplace, Sony’s products face an uphill battle, but Sony said it anticipates that uniting the mobile division with the broader company will make it better positioned to compete.
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