Cash-strapped Chinese tech firm Leshi Internet Information & Technology Corp (LeEco, 樂視) on Wednesday confirmed that it is throttling back plans to invade the US market, cutting 325 jobs months after announcing a major expansion.
The layoffs reportedly represent about 70 percent of the company’s US staff.
“The challenges with raising new capital have made it difficult in the past few months to support all of our business priorities,” LeEco spokeswoman Kayla Harper said in an e-mail. “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 belt tightening would affect approximately 325 positions in the US, Harper said.
LeEco — referred to as a combination of Netflix Inc, Apple Inc, Amazon.com Inc and Tesla Inc — dove into the US market late last year with a grand event in San Francisco and laid out a vision of taking on US tech titans on their home turf.
The firm jumped into a fiercely competitive US smartphone market with sophisticated handsets priced lower than flagship models from rivals to bring users to its “ecosystem” of online offerings.
However, analysts expected it to take more than bargains on handsets to win people away from what Apple and Google provide when it comes to meshing mobile devices with digital content, applications and services.
LeEco continues to have faith in its approach and will remain in the US market, but playing to its strength with content tailored for Chinese-speaking customers, Harper said.
“We believe this provides us an opportunity to build on our strengths and grow from there,” Harper said.
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