Sony Ericsson Makes More Job Cuts

Japanese-Swedish mobile phone maker Sony Ericsson is reportedly heading towards a major series of job cuts all around the world. According to Dow Jones Newswires, the company intends to reduce its global headcount by 2,000 before the mid 2010 is here. The slashes are said to begin at the handset vendor's site in Lund, Sweden, and to involve the reduction of 450 jobs there.

According to the news site, press spokesman Aldo Liguori said on Wednesday that the company would also give the pink slip to a number of around 200 consultants. At the same time, he also said that the mobile phone maker announced its Lund site personnel on the positions reduction, and that they would be given formal notice.

A number of around 3,000 employees is said to operate at the Lund site, which is the main center for product development Sony Ericsson has. However, the total number of employees the company aims at having by mid-2010 is to be of around 7,900, according to Liguori. The new job cuts are part of a personnel reduction program Sony Ericsson announced several months ago, and which should end up cutting 20 percent of its current workforce.

The joint-venture stated a few times before that it was working on the realignment of its business and that it aimed at becoming more cost effective. The handset vendor has had a series of bad quarters lately, and its profits sank deeply, with the latest quarterly announcement showing a EUR164 million net loss.

According to analysts, the main issue is that Sony Ericsson chose to focus on mid-level devices, at times when that entire industry moved towards smartphones. However, the company already came to the market with a series of new high-end devices, and is also expected to deliver new ones as soon as 2010 begins, including a Windows Mobile-based Xperia X2 and an Android-powered Xperia X10, something that might help it regain its foothold.