Huawei plans major layoffs during its operations in the United States: WSJ

FILE PHOTO: Attendees Pass Huawei Stand at CES 2019 in Las Vegas, Nevada, United States, January 9, 2019. REUTERS / Steve Marcus

July 14, 2019

(Reuters) – Huawei Technologies Co Ltd [HWT.UL] plans major layoffs in the United States while China's telecom equipment company is fighting its blacklist in the United States, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people close to the case.

The layoffs are expected to affect jobs at Futurewei Technologies, the US-based Huawei-based research and development subsidiary that employs approximately 850 people in research labs across the United States, the newspaper said.

The layoffs could be hundreds, said a person in the Journal. Another person added that Huawei's Chinese employees in the United States had the opportunity to go home and stay with the company.

Some employees have already been informed of their layoffs, while other planned job cuts could be announced soon, the newspaper said.

Huawei declined to comment when he was contacted by Reuters.

After the Commerce Department decided to register Huawei on its so-called list of entities, Futurewei's employees were forced to contact their colleagues at Huawei's offices in China, officials said. journalists in the Journal.

Last week, US Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross announced that the US government would issue licenses to companies seeking to sell products in Huawei, where national security was not threatened.

(Report by Maria Ponnezhath in Bengaluru, edited by Christian Schmollinger and Mark Potter)