HTC Move To Slash Jobs Distribution Model Tipped For OZ
Speculation is mounting that struggling smartphone brand HTC could move to a distribution model in Australia as the Taiwanese Company moves to slash hundreds of jobs.
ChannelNews has been told that HTC has been approached by a distributor with a view to taking over sales of HTC phones in Australia which at one stage represented two out of every ten mobiles sold in Australia.
New HTC restructuring plans will see the Company slash around a quarter of its global workforce through job cuts in a bid to better manage resources as the company continues to battle dwindling sales. This time last year the Company cut a deal to shed 2,000 from their books with Google stepping in to hire their key mobile engineers. The US $1.1 billion-dollar deal is set to be reflected in the new Pixel smartphone due shortly.
The latest job cuts indicate fresh hiccups for the struggling Taiwanese mobile phone maker that once sold one in 10 smartphones globally, but has seen its market share decline amid mounting competition from Chinese rivals Huawei, Apple, Samsung Electronics and in the value market Alcatel, the cuts represent about a quarter of the 6,450 staff it employed globally
“Today HTC announces plan to optimize the manufacturing organizations in Taiwan … This plan will allow more effective and flexible resource management going forward,” HTC said.
The layoffs will be completed by the end of September. The move is also part of a broader plan that brings HTC’s smartphone and VR businesses under common leadership in each region.
This follows a $1.1 billion deal late last year under which HTC shifted around 2,000 staff, mainly handset engineers, to Alphabet’s Google, casting doubts over the Taiwanese firm’s longer-term future.
HTC’s scaling down comes amid a decline in its revenues and sales. The company reported a 55.5 percent plunge in April revenues year-on-year and a 46.7 percent slide in March sales.
