NEC looks to cut 10,000 mainly mobile jobs on the back of predicted $1.3 billion loss

Japanese handset market in transition

IT giant NEC appears to be a major casualty of the Japanese market's shift towards smartphones, with falling feature phone sales causing the company to project net losses of $1.3 billion in 2011.

Such a figure would represent NEC's third annual loss in four years, with the company likely to cut 8.6 percent of its workforce – around 10,000 jobs – in response.

The challenge ahead

NEC describes current business conditions as "challenging" in its revised forecast, with the company cutting its projected revenues for the year ending 31 March by around $2 billion to an estimated $40.4 billion.

The firm claims this is due, in part, to a "decrease in sales from a decline in mobile phone shipments".

As a result, NEC's previous projection of a $196 million net profit for the period has been scrapped.



Bloomberg reports commentators are urging NEC to pull back from extraneous markets - such a mobile - to focus on the areas of its business where it remains strong.

As such, as many as 7,000 jobs could go from NEC's operations in Japan as early as March – mainly from its mobile operations - with a further 3,000 being pulled from overseas.

[source: NEC]

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