Electronics giant Sony is to cut 1,000 jobs as it moves its Sony Mobile headquarters from Lund in Sweden to Tokyo. The majority of the jobs – 650 of them – will be lost in Sweden.
Sony Mobile said this morning that it is embarking on a global restructure of its development sites in Tokyo, Sweden and Beijing and will move its corporate headquarters from Lund to Tokyo.
This will cost around 650 jobs in Sweden. Sony Mobile has filed a redundancy notification with the Swedish authorities. Lund, it said, will remain an important strategic site for Sony in terms of software and application development.
The company said it plans to reduce its global headcount by approximately 15pc, approximately 1,000 personnel including consultants, by the end of March 2014 as the company seeks to increase operational efficiency, reduce costs and drive profitable growth.
“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,” Kunimasa said.
Sony Mobile became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sony Corporation earlier this year after acquiring LM Ericsson’s 50pc stake in Sony Ericsson.
