Sony Mobile has announced that it is to cut around 15 per cent of its workforce, equivalent to 1,000 personnel, including consultants by the end of March 2014, with most of the losses taking place in Sweden.

The company, which was formerly a joint venture between Sony and Ericsson, is also moving its corporate headquarters and certain other functions from Sweden to Japan. Sony Mobile has also redefined the roles and responsibilities of each major development site to leverage the strengths of each respective site.

"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," said Kunimasa Suzuki, president and CEO of Sony Mobile.

Sony Mobile has filed a redundancy notification ("varsel") with the Swedish authorities to notify them that the company expects around 650 employees across a number of functions at Sony Mobile in Lund to be affected by job closures. The remaining headcount reductions will be primarily consultants in Sweden. Lund will continue to be a strategic site for Sony Mobile, with the main focus on software and application development.

ZTE announced an anticipated fall in profit for the first half of 2012, which it attributed to a number of issues including a reduced investment income, exchange losses, postponement of network contract tenders in its home market, and lower gross profit margin.

The vendor said that during the period it saw “relatively fast growth in overall revenue”, resulting from its efforts to “explore market niches and enhance its market position through initiatives in the perfection and innovation of product technologies”.

For the six months, the company reported a net profit attributable to shareholders of CNY245 million (US$38.6 million), down 68.17 per cent year-on-year, on operating revenue of CNY42.64 billion, up 15.21 per cent.
It noted that the period was “underpinned by slackened global economic growth, continued competition in the telecommunications industry, and volatility in exchange rates”.

Sales of devices stood at CNY14.28 billion, making up 33.4 per cent of total revenue. Revenue from operator network equipment was CNY21.28 billion, or 49.9 per cent of the total.

Growth in the ZTE’s international markets was slower, up 6.2 per cent to CNY21.76 billion, representing 51.02 per cent of the total.

Telenor has settled loans worth Rs 9,809 crore (US$1.77 billion) held by its Indian affiliate, Uninor, the company has announced.

The settlement comes after lenders issued default notices.

Uninor said that it has been operating on short-term loans after its minority shareholder blocked efforts by the majority shareholder to increase funding for the company. Although the shareholders were not named, it is obvious that they are referring to the dispute between Telenor and Unitech.

The short-term loans had been secured by Telenor.

Uninor is currently seeking to sell off its assets before the network faces closure next month after its GSM licences were cancelled. Telenor has said that it would buy the assets if bidders do not emerge, and is expected to use them to set up a fresh company with another Indian investor.

The Canadian government is reported to have been monitoring the possibility of a foreign takeover of Research In Motion (RIM), with a senior minister prepared to discuss foreign investment rules with Thorsten Heins, the BlackBerry-maker’s CEO, according to Reuters.

While RIM has said it is reviewing the strategic options for its business, it has stopped short of explicitly stating that it is up for sale. Rumours and speculation have linked the smartphone maker with Samsung and IBM, although the former has already played this down.

The Reuters report said that while the authorities were prepared to address the issues with RIM if they arose, Heins has not broached the topic – meaning it has not been discussed.

According to reports this week, RIM has recently laid-off a number of staff in Canada, including 25 per cent of its workforce in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Virgin Mobile Latin America has inked a funding agreement with IFC, a member of the World Bank, to support its Chilean operation.

The US$11 million debt facility will provide Virgin with “the capital to speed its entry into the Chilean mobile market”, the MVNO said in a statement.

Virgin is also in talks with IFC “about partnering to enhance the mobile market in a number of Latin American countries including Brazil and Colombia,” the company said in a statement.
Since its launch around four months ago, the Chilean operation has signed 65,000 customers, aiming at the youth market.

Earlier this year, Virgin Mobile Latin America secured US$26.5 million of equity funding to support its growth, from investors including Virgin Group and Hermes Growth Partners, a fund co-founded by former Telefonica head Juan Villalonga.

According to Wireless Intelligence figures, the Chilean market is dominated by Entel (9.8 million subscriptions), Telefonica’s Movistar (9.6 million) and America Movil’s Claro (5.7 million).