Qualcomm Denies To Shut Down Shanghai R&D Centre, Plans To Trim Workforce

(MENAFN- IANS) Hong Kong, Sep 25 (IANS) US chip-major Qualcomm has denied it is going to shut down its research and development facility in Shanghai, China.

The company, however, said“it does plan to downsize given uncertainties about the economy and demand,” the media reported.

Qualcomm told Chinese news service Yicai Global that it has no plans for large-scale job cuts at its Shanghai facility, which opened in 2010 and employs nearly 393 employees.

However, the company admitted“it does plan to downsize given uncertainties about the economy and demand.”

The multi-million dollar R&D centre is situated in the Zhangjiang Hi-Tech Park in Shanghai.

Qualcomm also has an R&D facility in Beijing.

According to the report,“staff redundancies and other downsizing measures are mainly scheduled for the fiscal fourth quarter and will entail significant additional costs” at Qualcomm.

In August, the chip major warned of an ongoing slump in smartphone sales and likely job cuts.

In a US securities filing as it announced results for its fiscal third quarter ended June 25, the company said“while we are in the process of developing our plans, we currently expect these actions to consist largely of workforce reductions, and in connection with any such actions we would expect to incur significant additional restructuring charge".

In the earnings call, President and CEO Cristiano Amon said that they are taking a conservative view of the market and "will be proactively taking additional cost actions to ensure Qualcomm is well positioned to deliver maximum value for stockholders in an uncertain environment".

The company delivered revenues of $8.4 billion, a 23 per cent year-over-year drop and 52 per cent decrease in net income to $1.8 billion, mainly due to an ongoing slump in the smartphone industry.

--IANS

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