Sony Ericsson is shutting down six offices globally and shedding 1,600 staff as it braces for further market contractions.
The handset JV also announced that it would shift its North American headquarters from North Carolina to Atlanta, where it has 19 staff.
The site closures will take place across the US in Research Triangle Park, Seattle, Miami and San Diego, while the site in Kista, Sweden will be shut in Europe in addition to the closure of the operation in Chennai, India.
For Seattle’s technology hub, Research Triangle Park, the closure of the operations follows a string of high profile tech company retrenchments. The shut down of the Sony Ericsson operations will eliminate 425 high-paying jobs. At its peak, the site employed about 1,000 people.
The company is consolidating product development at Sony Ericsson operations in Redwood Shores, California, Lund, Sweden; Tokyo; and Beijing.
The closures follow the announcement in April to cut its 10,000 strong worldwide staff by 20%.
A company spokesperson said around 1,600 jobs remained to be cut to meet that goal by the middle of next year.
Affected roles include customer support, customer service, sales, finance and research and development.
During Q3 Sony Ericsson revealed that its share of the global handset market had been reduced to 5%, compared to 38% for market leader Nokia.