Sony Mobile Announces 1,000 Layoffs, Restructuring Plan

From DailyTech: Sony Mobile announced today that it is commencing global restructuring of some of its development sites. The sites to be restructured are located in Tokyo, Japan; Lund, Sweden; and Beijing, China. Sony Mobile says that in October of 2012, it will move its corporate headquarters and certain other functions from its Lund, Sweden location to Tokyo, Japan.

Sony Mobile has also announced that it will redefine the roles and responsibilities of each of its major development sites to leverage the strengths of the individual site. Sony hopes the restructuring will help it to decrease its time-to-market for new products, streamline the supply chain, and help integrate Sony Mobile with the wider Sony group.

“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.”

As part of the restructuring, Sony plans to cut 15% of its global workforce, or roughly 1,000 employees. Sony has notified authorities in Sweden that it expects 650 employees at its Lund location will be affected by workforce reductions.

Sony Mobile's Lund location will continue to operate with a focus on software and application development.

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