Sony Mobile slashes 1,000 jobs

Vendor moves corporate headquarters and other functions from Sweden to Japan

Sony Mobile is set to cut 1,000 jobs or 15 per cent of its workforce as it moves its HQ and other functions from Lund in Sweden to Tokyo.

Jobs will be lost throughout the financial years of 2012 and 2013 (by the end of March 2014), with the majority of them (some 650) being various roles from the firm's Lund headquarters.

The firm said it has also 'redefined the roles and responsibilities' of each site - Tokyo, Lund and Beijing - to 'leverage the strengths' of each site and 'enhance their operational and development capabilites'.

Kunimasa Suzuki, chief executive of Sony Mobile, said: "Sony has identified the mobile business as one of its core businesses and the Xperia smartphone portfolio continues to gain momentum with customers and consumers worldwide.

"We are accelerating the integration and convergence witht he wider Sony group to continue enhancing our offerings, and a more focused and efficient operational structure will help to reduce Sony Mobile's costs, enhance time to market efficiency and bring the business back to a place of strength."

Despite the cuts, the firm insisted Lund will continue to be an important strategic site for Sony Mobile, with the main focus on software and application development.