Sony to slash 1,000 more jobs in its smartphone business
Japanese electronics giant Sony Corporation intends to lay off an additional 1,000 members of its workforce in the company’s smartphone business across Europe and China.
The firm has apparently decided to lay off more workers than originally planned in the hope of boosting its earnings, the Nikkei business daily reported Wednesday, adding that, in total, Sony’s workforce will be reduced by nearly 30 percent to 5,000 through March 2016.
The 1,000 staff members will be in addition to the nearly 1,000 other workforce members that the troubled company announced it was going to lay off in October last year.
According to the report, Sony is expected to explain its new restructuring plan on February 4, when it will release its April-December 2014 income report.
The development comes as the Japanese company has been lagging far behind key competitors such as South Korea-based Samsung Electronics and the US-based Apple Corporation.
The electronics firm, the report said, is further expected to register an impairment loss of nearly 180 billion yen ($1.5 billion) in its smartphone business in the current fiscal year due to tough competition with Chinese manufacturers.
Meanwhile, Sony Corporation’s costs for additional restructuring are projected at tens of billions of yen, with most to be filed in the next fiscal year.
Sony, however, will probably not miss its forecast of a 40-billion-yen consolidated operating loss this fiscal year, since its image sensors and games segments are doing well.
According to the report, the smartphone business is expected to book an operating loss of nearly 200 billion yen in the current fiscal year. Sony aims to make the segment profitable in fiscal 2016 with the additional restructuring efforts.
MFB/HJL/HRB
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