HTC’s leadership is laying off around one fifth of its workforce in an attempt to put the company on a path to sustainability.
According to a tweet from Bloomberg journalist Samson Ellis, HTC is cutting 1,500 people from its Taiwan workforce. That’s roughly 22 percent of employees.
June 26: @htc says it will return to profitability this year
July 2: @htc says it will cut its Taiwan workforce by 1,500 people (about 22% of total employees)— Samson Ellis (@samsonellis) July 2, 2018
The move is the latest attempt by HTC’s leaders to find a sustainable business in the shadow of giants like Google and Samsung. Late last year the company received a $1.1 billion injection from Google in exchange for key teams involved in the creation of the Pixel smartphone. Meanwhile, HTC’s engineering and marketing teams soldier on with launches like the Vive Focus standalone VR headset and Vive Pro. Though still operating globally, HTC appears to be focusing on trying to dominate the Chinese market with high-end hardware and the Viveport software store. Later this year the company is expected to launch an official wireless adapter for the Vive.
Update: HTC confirmed to UploadVR that today’s layoffs have no impact on the HTC Vive side of the business.
