Huawei said it will cut 100 jobs from its U.S. network infrastructure team, about a quarter of the workforce in that division, as it seeks to streamline its operations in a market where it has faced hostility.
The job cuts, which were first reported by LightReading, do not affect Huawei's other U.S. business units, including consumer devices, enterprise and research and development. A Huawei spokeswoman declined to comment on the reasons for the job cuts beyond a statement the company provided.
"Huawei Technologies USA recently simplified and streamlined its organization to sustain a profitable infrastructure business in the U.S.," the company said in a statement. "We have limited the reduction necessary to best streamline the organization to allow the company to continue providing U.S. carrier customers with the best technology solutions while maintaining our cost structure. Our long-term commitment to the U.S. infrastructure market and our U.S. carrier customers remains unchanged."
The cuts come after Huawei was rebuked by the U.S. Congress, which said in a report that Huawei's network gear, along with the gear of ZTE, posed a threat to national security. An October report from the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence recommended that the United States block acquisitions and mergers involving Huawei and ZTE, and it also recommended that the U.S. government and U.S. companies avoid using equipment from the two Chinese companies. Huawei and ZTE pushed back aggressively against the report's conclusions, and have repeatedly said they do not pose a security threat and have no ties to the Chinese military or government.
Earlier this week ZTE said it will invest $30 million more in the United States to demonstrate its commitment to the market. ZTE said it will use the funds to improve and integrate existing technologies, strengthen lab capabilities and build up the company's local capabilities to work closely with operators. The company noted that the investment will help spur job creation.
Meanwhile, rumors indicate that Huawei will announce a pair of smartphones running Microsoft's (NASDAQ:MSFT) Windows Phone 8 software at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas next month. According to the blog Unwired View, Huawei is preparing the high-end Ascend W2 and the low-end Ascend W1 phones. The post said little is known about the W2, but that the W1 will sport a 4.3-inch WVGA display, 1.2 GHz dual-core processor, 5-megapixel rear camera, a VGA front-facing camera, 512 MB of RAM and a 2,000 mAh battery. A Huawei spokeswoman declined to comment on report.
For more:
- see this LightReading article
- see this Unwired View post
- see this Digital Trends post
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