Sony yesterday revealed plans to lay off 16,000 workers in its electronics business worldwide as part of a broader plan to trim expenses and tighten its focus in what it said was a difficult financial climate.
The Japanese electronics and media giant, which currently has a full-time global workforce of 160,000, joins a long list of tech companies that have cut jobs and scaled back production.
The company will eliminate a number of contract workers and temporary employees, which would total 8,000 jobs, according to Reuters, in addition to 8,000 full-time workers. In addition to the job reductions, Sony plans to curtail or delay some of its investment plans.
The company will also downsize or withdraw from what it said were unprofitable or non-core businesses. The cuts should account for a total annual cost savings of more than 100 billion yen (US$1.08 billion) by the end of the fiscal year ending March 31, 2010.
The company will outsource a portion of its planned increase in manufacturing of complementary metal oxide semiconductor, or CMOS, image sensors for use in mobile phones. Additionally, it will postpone plans to invest in production expansion at its liquid crystal display, or LCD, television assembly plant in Slovakia.
Sony's goals are to reduce investment in the electronics business by about 30 per cent in the coming fiscal year and to reduce the total number of manufacturing sites by about 10 per cent, from the current total of 57.
