You might not otherwise know that Sony’s mobile division isn’t doing so hot, given that the company has announced a slew of smartphones in recent months, but the recent round of job cuts affects 575 employees and 400 contract positions. With these cuts, almost half of the firm’s Swedish workers are out of a job, and with the axe falling across a wide swath of departments, this suggests Sony is looking to save some cash for the time being.
According to TechCrunch, the Swedish location is of key importance when it comes to both manufacturing and research & development, making the job cuts a bit more crippling than they might at first appear.
Unfortunately, this staff reduction isn’t a surprise when you consider Sony Mobile’s poor performance during this recent fiscal year, with the division reporting a net loss of $1.06 billion. And Sony fully expects mobile sales to decrease moving forward. Even so, the company did announce a handful of smartphones in recent months, such as the Japan-exclusive Xperia Z4 and its international counterpart, the Xperia Z3+, as well as the Xperia A4, Xperia C4, and Xperia E4.
Overall, Sony expects an operating loss of 39 billion yen, or $315 million, for its mobile division, with the company’s overall profit coming from its camera, gaming, and entertainment divisions.
In addition, back in February, Sony announced it would lay off 2,100 employees in its mobile division, bringing the total number of employees in the division to about 5,000. At the time, Sony said these job cuts would take place in Europe and China. It remains to be seen whether Sony will continue to cut jobs in its mobile division, though at this point, we wouldn’t rule that out.
