China’s Lenovo cuts more staff amid lacklustre smartphone business
Some 1,100 employees laid off as part of ongoing restructuring at the company’s mobile operation
Chinese technology giant Lenovo Group is implementing another round of layoffs across the company, as it struggles to revive its flagging smartphone business amid a lingering global economic slowdown.
In a statement issued on Tuesday Lenovo said the new job cuts affected “less than 2 per cent of its approximately 55,000 employees globally”.
“The majority of the positions being eliminated are part of the ongoing strategic integration between Lenovo and its Motorola smartphone business,” the company said.
The staff reduction follows the recent forecast by research firm Gartner of flat worldwide information technology spending this year, totalling US$3.41 trillion.
Gartner also predicted global smartphone sales to increase by only 7 per cent this year to 1.5 billion units, compared with 14.4 per cent growth last year.
The World Trade Organisation on Tuesday forecast global trade to expand slower than expected this year to just 1.7 per cent, well below the 2.8 per cent growth it estimated in April.