NEC cuts 10,000 jobs after swing to $1.3b loss
updated 09:05 pm EST, Sun January 29, 2012
NEC slashes jobs to put an end to losses
NEC late this past week said it would drop 10,000 jobs in a bid to turn around a souring business. The drops, which would equate to about 8.6 percent of its entire workforce, were meant to mitigate the sudden estimate that it would lose about 100 billion yen ($1.3 billion) in the fiscal year that ends with March. It had previously predicted that it would make a profit of 15 billion yen ($195.4 million), a reversal from losses over all but one of the past four years.
Most of the cuts would come from its cellphone business, and 7,000 of the total lost positions would be in Japan. NEC has been making movements to possibly go international with its Android-based smartphones, but is still mostly limited to Japan for now.
NEC has already been consolidating in the hopes of recovering, having formed a pact with Lenovo to help drive its PC business in a frequently down market. Regardless, it hasn't fared as well in stiff competition in smartphones with fellow Japanese companies, as well as Apple and Samsung, and may be looking to center on its core display business until it's once again profitable. [via Bloomberg]
