Huawei is presently in the process of laying off employees “across the board” in the United States, a source familiar with the matter told AndroidHeadlines. The information hasn’t been verified independently and the company has yet to provide an official confirmation. The insider speculates the job cuts are a result of Huawei’s recent issues with Washington, having also reiterated recent reports that Best Buy dropped the Chinese tech giant last month and won’t be retailing its products after its existing stock runs out later this spring. The extent of the layoffs remains unclear but the atmosphere at Huawei USA is understood to be less than ideal, with a group of employees also quitting the company last week, the source said.
Huawei employs approximately 1,200 people in the U.S. across thirteen offices and six R&D centers, according to the firm’s official website. The stateside branch of the tech giant cut just under two-percent of its workforce or 20 positions last August, having described the move as part of “normal resourcing changes” which won’t impact its long-term commitment to the U.S. No systematic layoffs have been announced by Huawei USA ever since. The company recently released its Mate 10 Pro smartphone in the country but on a much smaller scale than it originally hoped for as it failed to secure a partnership with a U.S. wireless carrier which ultimately forced it to resort to offering its new Android flagship through Amazon and Best Buy, the latter of which won’t be retailing it for long, according to the aforementioned reports.
While Huawei was said to have agreed to a retail deal with AT&T, the second largest mobile service provider in the U.S. dropped the planned collaboration approximately a day before the thereof was meant to be announced at Las Vegas-based CES in January, industry sources said earlier this year, adding that the wireless carrier was effectively forced to walk away from Huawei due to pressure from American lawmakers and intelligence agencies who still believe the Chinese firm poses a national security threat due to its close ties to Beijing, a notion that Huawei has been publicly dismissing for nearly a decade now. Huawei‘s Americas unit shrunk by 10.9-percent over the course of the last year, according to the company’s latest annual performance report which attributes that decline to a decrease in network spending in Latin America, suggesting the trend was expected due to the cyclical nature of telecom investments.
AndroidHeadlines has reached out to Huawei for comment and will update this article with any new information when it becomes available.