Samsung Electronics Corporation will slash 10% of workers at its Suwon headquarters, according to the Korean Economic Daily. Samsung is targeting workers in the human resources, public relations and finance departments, as it suffers losses to Apple and Chinese vendors. Samsung has declined to comment.
The move comes after the new high-end Galaxy smartphones failed to gain traction, sparking five straight monthly declines and wiping out more than US$40 billion in Samsung’s market value since April. The company’s share of global smartphone shipments fell more than 3 percentage points in the second quarter. Adding to its woes, Samsung is no longer the top seller in China, the world’s biggest mobile-phone market.
“Cutting jobs is the easiest way to control costs and Samsung’s spending on mobile business could also be more tightly controlled,” Seoul based Nomura Holdings Inc. analyst Chung Chang Won told the media. “Samsung’s preparing to tighten its belt as it isn’t likely to see rapid profit growth in the years to come.”
The company had a total of 98,999 employees at its headquarters as of June 30, according to a regulatory filing.
Samsung shares rose 1.2% to 1,235,000 won as of 11:15 a.m. in Seoul, paring their decline this year to 15%.
Samsung tried to attract customers before this week’s product launch from Apple by advancing the release of new Galaxy models. Yet that failed to ease market concerns about its second-half earnings, when technology companies typically benefit from the year-end holiday shopping season.
Samsung, which had 206.2 trillion won ($171 billion) in sales last year, is estimated to post about 200.2 trillion won in sales this year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.