HTC to let go of 1,500 workers in Taiwan, 25% of its global headcount
Things have gone from bad to worse for HTC, and the situation is getting bleaker. According to a dispatch published today from Reuters, HTC is going to eliminate 1,500 manufacturing jobs in Taiwan. That means the company is letting go of a quarter of its remaining employees around the globe. The latest smartphone released by the company, the HTC U12+, isn't expected to generate the sales achieved by other Android manufacturers' flagship models.
In recent years, HTC has lost its way. Last year, the company received a much needed cash infusion of $1.1 billion from Google in exchange for 2,000 handset engineers who now work for the search giant. Sales declined 55.5% and 46.7% in April and March, respectively.
At one time, HTC had a global market share of 10%, and produced some of the most interesting handsets in the business such as the HTC Touch Diamond, Sony Ericsson Xperia X1, T-Mobile G1, Nexus One and the HTC One (M7) to name a few. But lately, the manufacturer has found itself unable to compete with other Android handset producers like Samsung and Huawei.
HTC says that the layoffs are part of a move to unite the company's smartphone and VR business under the same top executives in each region where it does business. The company will complete the layoffs by the end of September.
"Today HTC announces plan to optimize the manufacturing organizations in Taiwan ... This plan will allow more effective and flexible resource management going forward."-HTC
source: Reuters
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