Sony Mobile To Cut 1,000 Jobs

Sony is planning to cut 15 percent of its mobile division, as it looks to get the business back on track.

Having acquired the entire Sony Ericsson mobile phone division last year, it renamed the group Sony Mobile. But the company has not been faring well in a market dominated by Apple and Samsung.

Sony has decided to streamline operations, cutting 1,000 jobs. Most of the cuts, due to be finalised by March 2014, will affect its Swedish (Ericsson heritage) workforce, including those from the Lund plant and consultants in the country.

Heading home

Sony Mobile’s corporate headquarters will also be moved from Lund to Tokyo in October, although the city will still be home to company software and application developers.

“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.”

In April, Sony announced it was going to cut 10,000 jobs, or six percent of its global workforce, in an effort to cut costs.

A number of other mobile giants have been forced to cut numbers, including Nokia. In June, it emerged the Finnish firm was to reduce its workforce by around 10,000 as part of wide-ranging changes at the company.

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