Update: Samsung's chief financial officer, Lee Sang-hoon, has denied reports that the company is cutting 10 percent of its head office staff. Intead, he says it's just "standard relocating," staff from accounting, human resources and public relations will be sent to marketing or sales.
Samsung is preparing to cut 10% of its staff at the company's main headquarters in Suwon, South Korea, according to a local newspaper. The move comes as Samsung's smartphones continue to underperform, resulting in five straight monthly declines in sales and $44 billion being wiped off the company's market value since April.
Samsung is said to be targeting almost 10,000 employees in the HQ's human resources, public relations, and finance departments, according to the Korea Economic Daily. The paper added the company also plans to cut some expenses next year.
The tech giant has seen its share of global smartphone shipments fall more than 3 percent in the second quarter. Even though the Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge have gained overwhelmingly positive reviews, Samsung has still struggled to compete against increasing competition from Apple. Low sales of the company's older devices have also been blamed on the slump, which has seen Samsung slip from its position as the number one seller in the world's biggest phone market, China.
Chung Chang Won, an analyst at Nomura Holdings Inc. in Seoul, told Bloomberg: "Cutting jobs is the easiest way to control costs and Samsung's spending on mobile business could also be more tightly controlled. Samsung's preparing to tighten its belt as it isn't likely to see rapid profit growth in the years to come."
Samsung recently dropped the price of the Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge after the devices didn't attract the sales that were previously expected. The company's stock raised 1.7 percent in Seoul after news of the cuts was released.