China’s leading TV and Smartphone selling brand LeEco has announced that it is cutting more than 300 jobs in the United States, which is actually three quarters of the company’s total work force in the country, owing to shortage of cash.
The company’s founder had previously stated that the process of expansion had been a little too costly for them, and on that note, LeEco has decided to curtail its work force in the U.S. so that it could better focus on its home market, and its indeginous TV and online business.
LeEco supplies video displaying gears for TVs, smartphones, and even sports and electric vehicles, and employed around 14,000 people globally last year.
LeEco said in a statement:
The breadth of our business model is capital intensive.
It added:
As a result, the capital we do have will have to be highly focused resulting in a significant restructuring and streamlining of our business, operations and workforce.
The exact number of cuts is 325, says Teri Daley, LeEco’s general manager of communications. She declined to reveal the count of the remaining work force, however, she did mention that they would shut down their office in San Diego, California, while the one in Los Angeles would be downsized.
LeEco has constantly been putting a hold on its foreign ventures, like making cuts in India, selling property in Silicon Valley and declining on its deal of buying U.S. TV maker Vizio.
While speaking with reporters, LeEco’s founder Jia said that the cuts have been made for the sake of eradicating low efficiency workers, especially from non-listed businesses.
While the job cuttings in the U.S. are done to divert all its attention and resources towards the Chinese market, the China based business like smartphones and sports could also suffer some major job cuts, said.
Speaking with Reuters, a person familiar with the company’s plans said:
They will focus more on China. If you’re looking for trends to follow in the future, you’ll probably see a continued focus on the TV business.
LeEco however mentioned that this is not the end of its U.S. venture and will return back with a “phased approach”.
Daley said:
We are committed to staying in the U.S.
She said that the company will continue selling TV sets and smartphones in the country, however, its focus would now be narrowed down to Chinese-American consumers.
