restructuring
Latest
HBO Max halts original productions across large parts of Europe
HBO Max has confirmed that it will no longer produce originals in Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Central Europe, the Netherlands and Turkey.
LG plans to outsource more of its low-end and mid-range phones
The in-house mobile team will focus on premium devices.
OnePlus downsizes European teams to focus on key markets
Engadget reached out to OnePlus regarding the latest layoffs, and a spokesperson referred those as part of a “normal restructuring” in Europe in order to focus on key markets. Before this announcement, OnePlus had around 2,000 employees worldwide.
Faraday Future founder files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy
Faraday Future founder Jia Yueting has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in a bid to settle his exorbitant personal debts. The move is part of a larger recovery plan, and it's meant, in part, to regain credibility for Faraday Future. Though there's no guarantee that it will help.
LG Display's TV and phone screens struggle against cheaper Chinese rivals
Unable to compete with the glut of cheaper Chinese LCD panels, LG Display has replaced its chief executive and is looking to cut jobs. Early this week, the South Korean company held an emergency board meeting to accept the resignation of Han Sang-beom and appoint LG Chem President Jeong Ho-young as the new CEO, Reuters reports. According to Financial Times, the company has also revealed a voluntary redundancy program in an attempt to reduce its domestic workforce.
Faraday Future CEO will reportedly resign as part of restructuring plan
Faraday Future isn't just relying on its recent bailout to bring its electric car plans back on track. According to Pandaily, it's embarking on a restructuring plan that will see its polarizing CEO Jia Yueting step down. He's reportedly aiming to address both the company's debt and his own, and will set up a trust fund (paid with his Faraday Future shares) to repay creditors. He's betting that a future initial public offering will net enough funds to clear the debts. The executive will also sell an unspecified number of his shares.
One of Apple's display suppliers is in dire financial trouble
Japan Display's reluctance to embrace OLED manufacturing has cost it dearly. The firm took a net loss of ¥31.5 billion ($287,185,500) from April to June. "We have decided to make a strategic change as we would have no future in the smartphone business without OLED," CEO Nobuhiro Higasgiiriki (above) said. The iPhone screen supplier has shed 30 percent of its employees (3,700 people according to Phys.org) and is reorganizing for what it says is the last time.
Nikon cancels DL compacts amid 'extraordinary' losses
Nikon has cancelled the DL series premium compact cameras it was hoping to pit against Sony and Panasonic. The lineup was supposed to launch in June of 2016, but was delayed due to problems with the electronics. Since then, its rivals have released new models (the RX100 Mark V and Panasonic DMC-LX10) putting the company significantly behind. Because of all that (and a soft market) Nikon thought the DL compacts weren't likely to be profitable.
Toshiba to cut 6,800 jobs following accounting scandal
The fallout from Toshiba's accounting scandal is hitting in force, and it's not pretty. The Japanese company has announced that it will take a $4.5 billion loss and cut 6,800 jobs, or about 30 percent of its total consumer electronics workforce. Although some of the losses can be chalked up to a tight market, Toshiba took a serious hit after admitting it lied about profits for nearly six years. As part of the restructuring, it will sell off its TV and washing machine factories to Hong Kong partner Skyworth. The company recently sold its image sensor business to Sony and stopped building TVs for the US market.
HTC won't talk about its own future any more
A few months ago, we suggested that HTC could be the first really big Android manufacturer to go to the wall. In the wake of the firm's most recent update on its financial health, we're not really able to say anything different. The firm has posted a $138.6 million loss for the last three months, which is better than the $265 million it ate in the previous quarter, but still a loss. That may not, however, be the most troubling issue for the firm since, during its investors call, it announced that it would no longer publish guidance on its future performance.
Google is now Alphabet, the owner of Google
The paperwork is filed and it's official: Google has restructured itself into Alphabet. As of the close of business today shares of the old Google are now part of Alphabet, which counts Google as a subsidiary. On our end, this doesn't change much -- unless you're a big fan of Ingress or Pokemon -- but now Sergey Brin and Larry Page can chase innovations in seemingly unrelated areas. Sundar Pichai will keep running day-to-day operations at the new Google, except now with the title of CEO. Google now includes Android, Search, YouTube, Apps, Maps and Ads. Meanwhile, Alphabet can focus on Google Fiber (high speed internet), Calico and Life Sciences (health), Google Ventures and Google Capital (investments), Nest (home automation) and Google X (everything fun, like drone deliveries, self-driving cars and city-wide WiFi). [Image credit: Jeff Chiu/Associated Press]
Microsoft plans 7,800 layoffs, $7.6 billion Nokia write-down
After cutting its workforce by around 18,000 over the past year, Microsoft is readying another round of heavy layoffs. The company will cut 7,800 jobs over "the next several months." Many of the dismissals will come from Microsoft's phone business, which joined the company's newly formed "Windows and Devices Group" in June. As part of the merger announcement, Microsoft also revealed it would say goodbye to the last two major Nokia executives still at the company, Stephen Elop and Jo Harlow, in the near future.
Sega Sammy to cut hundreds of jobs in 'Digital' restructure
Sega Sammy is restructuring to prioritize "Digital Games," a reform that'll see it make job cuts including "soliciting voluntary retirement" for around 300 employees; 120 employees are due to be approached about voluntary retirement next month. Sega of America is among those to be hit by layoffs as it relocates from San Francisco to Southern California. Sega Sammy plans to now pursue growth in smartphone and PC online gaming, an area that's seen rising results for the company in recent years. Despite the success of some packaged games such as million-seller Alien: Isolation, Sega Sammy's consistently reported favorable results from the likes of Phantasy Star Online 2, Puyo Puyo Quest and Chain Chronicle.
Angry Birds publisher cuts layoffs down to 110
Angry Birds publisher Rovio announced plans to cut 16 percent of its workforce in early October, which approximated 130 jobs. That number is now down to 110, as the studio concluded its employee negotiations this week. As part of Rovio's reorganization plans, it opened up "several positions" to internal applicants, so the final number of layoffs for the publisher is expected to change as the company fills those new roles. As part of its restructuring, Rovio will discontinue its Tampere studio and consolidate its operations in Finland to its Espoo branch. The company's profits were halved as of April, resulting in a leadership change at the end of the year as announced in August. As of January 1, 2015, Mikael Hed will step down as CEO and move into the role of Chairman of Rovio Animation Studios, being replaced by Nokia's former Senior Vice President of Pekka Rantala. [Image: Rovio]
Future to spare CVG from publication cuts
UK gaming site CVG will not close down this year following a round of cutbacks at its publisher, Future, MCV reports. CVG will decrease its writing staff to three – it currently has five full-time employees plus support staff in the US and Australia. Future will review CVG in December. In May, Future announced a restructuring effort that would result in the loss of 170 jobs in the UK. Future handles gaming publications OXM, PC Gamer, Gamesradar, Edge and CVG. Future planned to focus its attention on Gamesradar, the bigger US brand, but support for CVG and attempts to purchase the site prompted Future to keep it around through December at least, MCV reports. There's no word on the fate of Future's other gaming holdings. [Image: Future]
Harmonix lays off 37 staff
Harmonix announced that it is undergoing an organizational restructure, resulting in the loss of 37 full-time positions. The news comes just one week after the developer successfully raised $844,127 on Kickstarter to create a successor to its 2002 cult favorite PS2 music game, Amplitude. "Harmonix is in the process of restructuring our organization to bring it into alignment with our current and future product development plans," a Harmonix spokesperson told Joystiq. "Unfortunately, this means making the difficult decision to reduce the number of full-time staff." The layoffs will not reportedly affect any of the games Harmonix currently has in production, namely Amplitude and Fantasia: Music Evolved as well as ongoing support of Record Run. Part of the company's restructure will result in studio head and CEO Alex Rigopulos stepping into the role of Chief Creative Officer while Steve Janiak will become CEO. Janiak was previously the head of Harmonix's publishing and business operations division. "We sincerely appreciate the work of each and every one of these employees. Harmonix is working to ensure that those affected are well taken care of as we make this change," the spokesperson added. The layoffs are said to be unrelated to Microsoft's recent decision to unbundle the Xbox One from the Kinect. Harmonix's most recent franchise, Dance Central, is dependent on the device. [Image: Harmonix]
Future publishing restructure resulting in loss of 170 UK jobs
Restructuring at magazine publisher Future will result in the a loss of over 170 jobs in the UK, the publisher reported in its half-year financial results (ending March 31, 2014). Known for gaming publications like OXM, PC Gamer, CVG and Edge, Future announced its global plans to "refocus and simplify" at the beginning of the month. Future reported an increase in its normalized UK revenues by two percent to £41.5 million ($69.4 million), which accounted for 85 percent of the group's total revenue. Its normalized U.S. revenue was down 14 percent for the half-year to £7.3 million ($12.2 million). Part of Future's plans involves the sale of the company's sport and craft properties to Immediate Media for up to £24 million ($40.1 million). The sports magazines include Procycling, Cycling Plus and Mountain Biking UK, whereas the craft publications in question include both the UK and US Mollie Makes magazines, The Knitter and Simply Knitting. [Image: Future PLC]
HP cuts 16,000 jobs, up to 5 percent of its workforce
It looks like HP's layoff estimates were off again -- according to the company's latest financial report, it needs to cut an additional 11,000 to 16,000 employees from its payroll to make ends meet. This is the third (and largest) adjustment the company has made to its layoff numbers; HP originally planned to axe 27,000 employees in May of 2012, but increased the estimate to 29,000 the following september and to 34,000 in 2013. Now the restructuring plan could eliminate as many as 50,000 jobs in total. Harsh news for HP employees, particularly after CEO Meg Whitman said that the company was done eliminating positions. The president makes no such promises this time, but she's at least optimistic about the restructuring. "I'm pleased to report that HP's turnaround remains on track," and said that increased layoffs "make sense in a turnaround of this scale."
Layoffs hit Sega Europe following restructure in US
Sega Europe suffered "a limited number of redundancies" due to a restructuring in Sega of America's Sonic and mobile divisions. The layoffs follow those that hit Sega of America in October 2013 due to another restructure. "Sega is in the process of consolidating certain functions of the Sonic and Mobile departments within Sega of America, where the management and production for those areas of the business reside," Sega told Joystiq via email. "As part of that strategy a limited number of redundancies have taken effect in our European office, based in London." Sega slashed its profit forecasts in February for the fiscal year ending March 31, cutting its expected net income by 36.2 percent to 30 billion yen ($293.5 million). [Image: Sega]
Murdered: Soul Suspect dev lays off 14 in studio restructuring
Airtight Games, developer of Murdered: Soul Suspect and Quantum Conundrum, suffered layoffs this week. The studio let go of 14 employees, confirmed by IGN as part of a "necessary restructuring" for the developer. Airtight's restructuring was deemed "part of the normal ebb and flow of game production" and that the studio's current projects are still on schedule. The developer announced a June 3 release date for Murdered: Soul Suspect roughly one month ago. Square Enix said the "core team is continuing to work towards shipping in June." One previous employee of Airtight Games, the studio's creative director and Portal Co-Creator Kim Swift, joined Amazon Game Studios yesterday along with Far Cry 2 Lead Designer Clint Hocking. [Image: Airtight Games]
