LeEco reverses course in US, cuts 325 jobs

Cash-strapped Chinese tech firm LeEco on Wednesday confirmed that it is throttling back plans to invade the US market, cutting 325 jobs months after announcing a major expansion. The layoffs were reported represent about 70 percent of the company’s US staff.

“The challenges with raising new capital have made it difficult in the past few months to support all of our business priorities,” LeEco spokeswoman Kayla Harper said in an email.

“As a result, the capital we do have will have to be highly focused resulting in a significant restructuring and streamlining of our business, operations and workforce.”

The belt tightening will effect approximately 325 positions in the US, according to Harper.

LeEco — referred to as a combination of Netflix, Apple, Amazon and Tesla — dove into the US market late last year with a grand event in San Francisco and laid out a vision of taking on US tech titans on their home turf.

LeEco jumped into a fiercely competitive US smartphone market with sophisticated handsets priced lower than flagship models from rivals to bring users to its “ecosystem” of online offerings.

Analysts, however, expected it to take more than bargains on handsets to win people away from what Apple and Google provide when it comes to meshing mobile devices with digital content, applications and services. (AFP)