Sony Ericsson posts huge Q4 losses

by Stevie Smith - Jan 19 2009, 13:00

The economic hurt just keeps on coming for the technology industry, with this week seeing mobile phone giant Sony Ericsson posting massive fourth quarter 2008 losses of $245 million USD.

Citing the effects of a substantial drop in sales linked to the current financial downturn, Sony Ericsson’s Q4 figures arrive as a marked year-on-year drop when compared to the $498 million USD profit it posted during the same period in 2007.

Sony Ericsson shipped some 24.2 million handset devices during 2008’s final quarter, which is a 21 percent year-on-year plunge.

An Associated Press article reveals the handset partnership between Japanese heavyweight Sony Corp. and Swedish electronics specialist LM Ericsson AB has reported a loss of around $97 million USD for the whole of 2008.

While other technology players are presently looking to cut operating costs by openly dumping employees and cutting back on various services, Sony Ericsson has yet to detail exactly how it plans to save a projected $640 million USD, although it has already announced some 2,000 job cuts throughout the company.

Subsequent restructuring could well be sweeping when it arrives, with company president Hideki Komiyama describing 2008 as a “tumultuous year,” before going on to outline in an official statement that Sony Ericsson sees “a continued deterioration in the marketplace in 2009, particularly in the first half [of the year].”

Other tech companies striving to adjust to the spreading recession by taking the axe to their operations include computer maker Dell Inc., which recently dropped almost 2,000 workers from its manufacturing facility in Ireland, and also Sony Corp., which has culled some 8,000 employees.

There are also ongoing rumours that American software beast Microsoft Corp. is on the verge of reducing its international workforce by some 15,000 people. 

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