Texas Instruments to cut up to 500 Indian staff

U.S. chip designer Texas Instruments (TI) will slash between 300 and 500 engineering jobs from its Indian operations as part of the company's global restructuring plan.

A report by the Economic Times Tuesday cited several unidentified employees who revealed the estimated number of layoffs. "Texas Instruments has cut down an entire business unit. These are experienced developers with two to five years experience and some senior managers as well," one employee said.

"The numbers could reach around 500 since the company is terminating the entire business unit," another employee said.

According to the report, a TI spokesperson confirmed there will be layoffs in India but did not state the exact number. "This decision is consistent with TI's previously outlined intentions to focus its OMAP (open multimedia application platform) processors and wireless connectivity solutions on a broader set of embedded applications with long lifecycles, instead of its historical focus on the mobile market where large customers are increasingly developing their own custom chips," Narahari KS, director of communications at the Indian arm, said in an e-mailed statement.

He added that while Indian employees will be affected by the layoffs, there will be opportunities for some to be redeployed to other divisions within the company.

TI last month announced plans to cut some 1,700 staff worldwide, or 5 percent of its global headcount, to cut costs and said this restructuring will reduce its focus on chips built for mobile phones. It faces competition from rival chipmakers such as Qualcomm and phonemakers which manufacture their own chips such as Samsung.

The U.S. company said it will instead focus on more relevant, profitable areas such as embedded systems.