Chipmaker Marvell to cut 17 percent of its workforce

The American chip manufacturer Marvell is going to implement a reorganization that mainly affects the mobile branch of the group. Due to the reduction of the business unit, 17 percent of the jobs will disappear. Marvell will focus on the internet-of-things and automotive market.

The chip manufacturing division for mobile devices is underperforming and Marvell also wants to cut costs through the company’s reorganization. The mobile chips business will generate revenues of $122 million this year and a profit of $13 million.

Marvell had more than 7,000 employees at the beginning of this year, with the reorganization expected to cost about 1,200 jobs. Marvell immediately begins restructuring. It is not known in which countries the layoffs all fall, but Marvell does talk about ‘worldwide’.

Marvell makes chips for a wide range of applications such as networks, storage media, TVs and printers. The company claims to produce one billion chips per year. Marvell’s socs for smartphones appeared in devices from Samsung and BlackBerry, among others. The company mainly focuses on the budget segment, where it faces fierce competition from MediaTek, among others.