Mobile telephone maker Sony Ericsson on Friday said it would cut some 2,000 jobs after it posted a break-even result for the second quarter of last year.
Pre-tax income for the quarter was 8 million euros (US$12.6 million), compared with 327 million euros for the corresponding period last year, the group said.
The net result was 6 million euros for the quarter, a 97 percent drop year-on-year.
Group turnover was 2.82 billion euros, down 9 percent from the second quarter of last year, Sony Ericsson said.
After the report was released, Sony Ericsson chief executive Dick Komiyama told reporters that some 2,000 jobs were to be cut. The group has some 12,000 employees worldwide.
Komiyama said in a statement the group planned to introduce savings of 300 million euros.
The group had said on June 27 it expected lower profits and sales amid tighter competition and a slowdown in demand for its mid to high-end phones.
Sony Ericsson said it sold 24.4 million handsets during the quarter, compared with 24.9 million handsets sold during the second quarter of last year.
The average selling price of Sony Ericsson handsets in the quarter dropped to 116 euros, compared with 125 euros in second quarter of last year. In the first quarter of this year, the average selling price was 121 euros.
Sony Ericsson estimated that the global handset market this year would grow around 10 percent from more than 1.1 billion units last year, driven largely by emerging markets.
The group’s share of the global market was estimated at 8 percent.
Sony Ericsson said it expected “challenging market conditions” to remain for the rest of the year, not the least in the third quarter.
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