Arm Holdings PLC has laid off more than 70 software engineers in China, although it plans to relocate some of the roles outside of China, people with knowledge of the move said.
The British firm’s actions mirror those of major chip companies, including Qualcomm Inc that have cut back on the global staffing level earlier this year as the semiconductor industry faces a downturn due to lackluster electronics demand. Last month, Arm gave a disappointing sales forecast amid a slump in smartphone sales.
About 15 of the staff whose positions are being eliminated are to be offered different roles working on China-related projects, one affected employee said.
Photo: Bloomberg
The jobs being terminated are currently filled by contract software engineers who have worked on projects that span Arm’s business around the world, another affected engineer said.
“In order to ensure that the China Software Ecosystem can fully maximize the benefits of Arm performance and features, Arm is restructuring its China software engineering resources to focus on direct support for local developers,” the company said in a statement.
China’s contribution to Arm’s global sales fell to about 20 percent from 25 percent as rest of the world grew much faster, CEO Jason Child told analysts last month.
The Softbank Group Corp-backed firm has been affected by Washington-imposed restrictions on technology exports to Chinese companies as Arm has developed some of its proprietary designs — widely used in mobile devices — in the US.
Arm is still recovering from the turmoil of an extended dispute with the ousted head of Arm China, a joint venture owned by Softbank and a group of Chinese investors.
Former Arm China CEO Allen Wu (吳雄昂) refused to leave his post after being dismissed, and it took investors years to retake control.
Arm China acts as the sales office for the British chip designer in the largest market for semiconductors. Earlier this year, the Chinese entity itself let go of more than 100 employees, most of them working in the research and development unit, where they were creating new chip technology for the local market, the affected employees said.
Arm outsourced the work of supporting Chinese customers to Arm China via a division called global service, which had as many as 200 employees at one point. More than 70 employees at that department have been let go, with some expecting an offer to be relocated, one affected employee said.
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