HTC, the Taiwanese smartphone manufacturer, has decided to sack more than 2,000 people, which is about 15% of its workforce. This was declared by the company on Thursday. This announcement was made within a week of the firm’s posting about its biggest quarterly loss ever. HTC said that they lost business worth TWD 8 billion in the second quarter of 2015 as compared to a net profit of $ 2.26 billion during the same period in 2014.
This loss has also affected the closing share price of the company that sank to the lowest in the last decade. On Thursday, the price fell further, closing at TWD 50.7, which is down by 7.82%.
HTC had to suffer this fate due to the surge in demand and sale of Apple, Samsung, Huawei and Lenovo products. The firm said that slashing jobs is part of a “business realignment” to stimulate growth. The company also said that it was, “aiming for significant profitable growth with a leaner and more agile operating model. This realignment will also involve a streamlining of operations to result in an expected reduction in operating expenditure of 35 percent; this includes an expected 15 percent in headcount.”
Though HTC spokeswoman was reluctant to divulge any details on the number of people the company was laying off but as per the global headcount at 15,000 employees, about 2,250 people would lose their job at HTC. As per the estimation of local media, the number would reach upto 2,300 people.
Poor sales in China and weaker-than-expected demand of its sophisticated and chic products may have affected the company but they are hopeful of getting expected results from the sale of their new line of products like HTC Vive headset and other products offering virtual reality experiences.
Cher Wang, the CEO of HTC said, “As we diversify beyond smartphones, we need a flexible and dynamic organization to ensure we can take advantage of all of the exciting opportunities in the connected lifestyle space.”
