Sony Mobile Relocating to Toyko, Slashing 1,000 Jobs
Sony Mobile is letting go of 1,000 employees, or 15 percent of its overall workforce, as the company prepares to relocate its corporate headquarters and certain other functions from Lund, Sweden, to Tokyo, Japan, the company announced today. The goal with all of this is to put Sony Mobile in a better position to bring products to market in a timely manner.
"Sony has identified the mobile business as one of its core businesses and the Xperia smartphone portfolio continues to gain momentum with customers and consumers worldwide," said Kunimasa Suzuki, President and CEO of Sony Mobile. "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."
The job cuts will occur gradually from now until March 2014 as Sony tries to stop the financial bleeding after posting a record loss of $5.6 billion last year. Sony Mobile has been profitable the past two years, but just barely, and the company is banking on the fact that an increased focus on mobile handsets will help it compete with the likes of Apple and Samsung.
"Sony has identified the mobile business as one of its core businesses and the Xperia smartphone portfolio continues to gain momentum with customers and consumers worldwide," said Kunimasa Suzuki, President and CEO of Sony Mobile. "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."
The job cuts will occur gradually from now until March 2014 as Sony tries to stop the financial bleeding after posting a record loss of $5.6 billion last year. Sony Mobile has been profitable the past two years, but just barely, and the company is banking on the fact that an increased focus on mobile handsets will help it compete with the likes of Apple and Samsung.
