Filed under: Hardware, Odds and ends
Sony lays off 16,000; will close factories
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
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.
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