Tuesday 20 November 2007
Samsung cut 1,600 jobs
Suzanne Deffree, News Editor, Electronic News
Samsung Electronics Co. cut more than 1,600 employees between March and the end of September, according to a report Sunday from The Korea Times. The report cites data from the Financial Supervisory Service, a Korea financial watchdog, and states Samsung had 85,269 workers as of the end of September, down 1,630 from the 86,899 workers the Seoul-based company had as of March.
The data also claimed that the number of high-ranking officials at Samsung also declined by 15 to 821 during the six month period. While Samsung has seen some recent positive news—including a solid Q3, and being noted as one the healthiest companies in the mobile phone market and as the top company in a recent overall flat panel TV ranking—the electronics giant is not without troubles: many of the technology markets it plays in have seen severe pricing pressure and have been hurt by overcapacity, in particular memory.
Further, a sixth Samsung executive in April agreed to plead guilty in the United States Department of Justice proceedings on the global DRAM price-fixing conspiracy. And a short power outage in August at Samsung’s plant in Giheung, South Korea, forced the company to shut down six of its chip production lines at an estimated cost of US$54.1 million.
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