In response to market pressures in its desktop business, Lenovo Group has announced it would lay off 1,000 employees and move its corporate headquarters from Purchase, New York, to Raleigh, North Carolina. In a conference call with reporters, Lenovo President William J. Amelio said that Lenovo's notebook business is strong in developing and emerging markets, but that its desktop business faces severe competitive pressures.
"Lenovo leads the market in innovation. But we still have inefficiencies. We need to bring our expense-to-revenue ratio closer to industry benchmarks, and simplify our organisational structure," Amelio said. The layoffs represent about 5% of the company's 21,400 employees. Lenovo managers will identify the workers by the end of March, spreading the cuts throughout company offices in the Americas, Asia/Pacific and EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) regions.
