According to a report in a Korean newspaper, Samsung is to cut 10 percent of workers at its headquarters, as the world’s biggest smartphone maker loses sales to Apple and Chinese vendors.
Samsung is targeting workers in the human resources, public relations and finance departments, Korea Economic Daily reported Tuesday, citing people it didn’t identify.
The Suwon, South Korea-based company also plans to cut some expenses next year, the report added.
The moves come after new high-end Galaxy smartphones failed to impress consumers, triggering five straight monthly declines and wiping out more than $40 billion in Samsung’s market value since April.
Samsung’s share of global smartphone shipments is also down by 3 percentage points in the second quarter and it has been dethroned as the top vendor in China, which happens to be the biggest mobile-phone market in the world.
Samsung declined to comment in an e-mail.
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.
