iMahesh / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0). Cropped.
Qualcomm has begun laying off employees in India, its largest engineering base outside the United States, as the chipmaker cuts costs after a sharp fall in revenue from smartphone processors.
The first notices went out at its Bengaluru facility on Monday, days after cuts began in the US, Financial Express reported. Qualcomm employs about 20,000 people in India across Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai and the Delhi region. At the same ratio as the reported global cut of about 7 per cent, the India figure would be around 1,000 or a little higher, analyst Pareekh Jain of EIIRTrend told the paper. People familiar with the plans told Investing.com the actual number would be significantly lower. The company has not confirmed any figure and declined to comment.
Chief executive Cristiano Amon told staff in October that the reductions would be performance focused and would follow annual reviews. Some employees asked to leave said they had received no prior feedback on their performance, the paper reported.
The company's own numbers point to a business reason. Its handset revenue fell 26 per cent in the latest quarter, Investing.com reported, and its revenue forecast fell short of market estimates as rising memory prices weighed on demand for consumer electronics.
Affected staff have been offered severance of three months' pay linked to tenure, plus one more month if they sign relieving papers within three days, according to FE. The cuts span senior engineers and recent hires.
Analysts expect another round in January.
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