US based semiconductor firm Texas Instruments (TI) is planning to cut about 1,700 jobs globally to reduce costs as part of its plans to shift focus from smartphones.
The company expects to report a one-time charge of $325m, mostly in the current quarter, for the layoffs which are anticipated to save it about $450m a year by the end of next year.
The number of job cuts account about 5% of TI’s nearly 35,000 employees worldwide and most of the layoffs will be in the US, France, India, and Israel.
TI vice president Greg Delagi was quoted by AFP as saying that, "We have a great opportunity to reshape our OMAP (Open Multimedia Applications Platform) processor and wireless connectivity product lines to concentrate on embedded markets."
TI has been facing stiff competition from the US based Apple and South Korea’s Samsung Electronics who have been developing their own chips instead of buying them from a supplier like TI.
In September this year, TI had said that it will not invest in mobile devices that include smartphones and tablets due to increased competition in the market.
Last month, the Israeli financial newspaper Calcalist reported that TI was in talks to sell its mobile chip unit to the internet retail major Amazon.
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For the third quarter of 2012, TI’s revenue declined 2% to $3.39bn, due to falling chip demand, when compared to $3.46bn registered during the corresponding period in 2011.
