It seems LeEco is in deep crisis as the company has fired 85 per cent of its Indian staff and soon it might exit the Indian smartphone market, according to the latest report. Not only this, company’s top executives has left the company as well, which further strengthen the fact that it is facing a major financial crunch.
As per a new report by The Economic Times, two top executives have left the company. Atul Jain, Chief operating officer of smart electronics business and Debashish Ghosh, chief operating officer for Internet applications, services and content have resigned, says the report citing three top industry sources.
In December last year, LeEco exited the offline smartphone market and was focusing more on selling its devices online via Flipkart, Amazon, Snapdeal and its own e-store as a part of its new Business Strategy. The company has also slashed its hefty advertising budget as well and had cut about 1,000 temporary jobs at that time. And now, the company has fired 85 per cent of its staff and is looking to exit Indian smartphone market.
Earlier, a Bloomberg report said that LeEco’s chairman, Jia Yueting, had written an email to employees saying that the firm had burnt cash too quickly as it expanded into different businesses. However, the report further states that LeEco India chief operating officer Alex Li has confirmed the exit of the executives, but had denied the plans to exit Indian market or liquidate stock. On the layoffs, he said the company has recalibrated and reimagined its business in India since last year and has taken steps to ensure that the scale of operations is in sync with resources, the report added.
LeEco entered the Indian smartphone industry back in January 2016 with its Le1s which quickly went viral because of its value for money proposition. However, the successor to the Le1s i.e Le2 didn’t quite escalate the things for the company. Later on, the Chinese handset manufacturer entered the TV segment in August 2016 by launching three smart LED TVs. Not only this, in October 2016, the company decided to accelerate its expansion plans and made its way to the United States by launching Le Pro3 and Le S3.
However, the rapid expansion in the different segment ranging from smartphones and driverless cars has resulted in a rapid cash burning. In India, the company lost its majority of the market share to other competitors like Xiaomi, Lenovo, and now it has been struggling to find its place in this highly competitive market.