Sony announced today it plans to lay off 16,000 workers, close a handful of factories and reduce electronics investment by a third, as their comeback effort falls apart. Sony is both Apple's competitor in the mobile phone market and their partner for computer components, including batteries.

"Five or six" factories will be closed, with only one named so far: Sony Dax Technology Center, in France. Several other factories in Japan will be closed, and one other abroad, according to the IDG News Service.

8,000 full-time employees will be laid off, along with another 8,000 temps and contractors. Those 16,000 people represent about nine percent of their workforce.

Forbes.com's announcement of the layoffs attributed some of Sony's loss of revenue to Apple's dominance in the music player market, a torch Sony once carried.

Sony hopes the moves will save them a billion dollars going into its next fiscal year, which starts in April.

Macworld notes today that Adobe won't have a booth at Macworld Expo, but will still be offering training sessions at the conference. Traditionally, Adobe's booth has been a major presence on the show floor.

The bad news might not end there: A tipster with purported connections inside Adobe told us that the company is considering laying off a significant fraction of its nearly 7,000 employees, including management.

• Update 4 p.m.: The axe fell a few hours ago at Adobe, according to two three former employees, but we don't know how widespread the damage is.
• Update 5 p.m.: Mike Downey, principal evangelist for the Flash, Flex and AIR products is "no longer with Adobe."
• Update 5:10 p.m.: Adobe issued a press release: "Adobe also announced the implementation of a restructuring program, and has taken steps to reduce its headcount by approximately 600 full-time positions globally. The restructuring will result in anticipated pre-tax charges totaling approximately $44 million to $50 million. The Company expects approximately $28 million to $30 million of the restructuring charges to be recorded in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2008." Read the full press release here.
  

This points to some serious, knee-jerk cost-cutting at Adobe, since Macworld Expo has been so valuable to Adobe's relationship with the Mac user base in the past.

"Adobe has decided to shift its focus at the Macworld trade show this year," the company said in a statement given to Macworld magazine. "Macworld [Expo] is a valuable industry show and we will still be an active part of it with members of our product team involved in Macworld tracks, including a full day of CS4 demo sessions with Adobe evangelists on Wednesday, January 7."

Adobe Creative Suite 4 was released in October.

[Via O'Grady's PowerPage.]

It sounds like Apple's products aren't making as much of a splash in Taiwan as other parts of the world, as Apple has just cut 30% of its sales workforce there. The former managing director of Apple Taiwan, Kong Yuk-loong, called it quits at the end of June, with a slew of managers and executive following in his footsteps soon after. DigiTimes has more details on the report, including a citation of declining iPod sales being a factor in the cutback.

Of course, Apple declined to comment on the story.

[via MacMinute]