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LeEco Said To Lay Off Over 80 Percent of US Workforce (cnbc.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from CNBC: LeEco, a Chinese company that made a big splash in the U.S. last fall, is preparing for a round of layoffs that may happen as soon as Tuesday, according to sources. Two people told CNBC the company is planning massive layoffs in the U.S., with one source saying that only 60 employees will be left after the cut. The company's current headcount in the U.S. is over 500, according to this person. CNBC obtained an email calling employees together for a Town Hall Meeting that will occur in three of the company's U.S. locations, including San Diego, Santa Monica and San Jose, at 10 a.m. PST. The email asks employees to attend unless they're off for the day, in which case they're asked to call in. It's not clear what will be announced at the meeting, but a second source told CNBC that layoffs will be announced tomorrow. Under the restructuring, LeEco will refocus on encouraging Chinese-American consumers to watch LeEco's Chinese content library, one person said.

13 of 104 comments (clear)

  1. Who are they by houghi · · Score: 4, Insightful

    and they do what? And I should care why?

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    1. Re:Who are they by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 2

      According to the TFA, smartphones, TVs, Chinese media and electric cars. Initial reputation was "Netflix of China" before they expanded to US. Looks like someone had money to burn.

    2. Re:Who are they by DrXym · · Score: 4, Informative
      From the sounds of the original link, they manufactured hardware containing spyware.

      LeEco started out in China as a streaming media provider — it has been referred to as the "Netflix of China" — and looked to expand into the US by selling affordable hardware that linked consumers to media content from LeEco's partners. Its first batch of products included two smartphones and several TVs, all of which offered flagship-level specs at affordable prices. The idea, it seemed, was that LeEco would make its money back when consumers tuned in to partner programming.

  2. Signs of things to come. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The USA is becoming less and less dominate in the World. Most of the economic growth is in the Third World. And as they continue catching up, we will have more layoffs from both foreign and domestic firms and we will see our standard of living continue to decline.

    We had a great run from the end of WWII to about 2000. It was just a historical fluke but we Americans have come to think that it's the norm because of our "exceptionalism". Well we're regressing back to the mean of our historical pre-WWII growth of about 1 - 2%. And there is nothing politically that can be done about it - contrary to what Trump and his supporters believe.

  3. transit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    The U.S. depends upon the ability to force the world to use the U.S. dollar to buy oil. As the world transits away to renewable energy, the ability of the U.S. to print money and have it bought by the rest of the world declines, leading to inflation and economic decline.

  4. astonishingly bad summary by SethJohnson · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It would be helpful to readers if the summary contained any info at all about the company's main product or reason why this is significant. Instead, the summary dwells only on the method of the layoffs, which is not original at all.

  5. Re:Critical mistake number 1 - California by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Was that supposed to be funny, insightful, or informative?

    When the Japanese were buying up U.S. properties in the 1980's, a reporter asked them where they were looking.

    The Japanese replied, "The East Coast."

    "New England, the Carolinas, Florida?" the reporter asked.

    The Japanese laughed. "The East Coast of the Pacific."

    The reporter didn't understand.

    "California, Oregon and Washington," the Japanese explained patiently. "Your West Coast is our East Coast."

    Go back to sticking your head into a bucket of Krispy Kreme, you doof.

    I hate Krispy Kreme.

  6. Re:The Politically Correct Business BS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    There is a difference in the terms:
    Fired = let go for cause.
    Laid off = let go due to company downsizing or similar, not due to employee fault.

    Sometimes there's a reason people use different words, and it's usually because they have different meanings.

  7. Re:Critical mistake number 1 - California by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 2

    That story never happened.

    True story. But let's look at the historical context of that story from the L.A. Times.

    The Leventhal study estimates Japanese investment in U.S. real estate last year at $5.06 billion, down from the $13.06 billion spent in 1990. The peak year for Japanese investing was 1988, when they spent $16.54 billion on U.S. properties.

    http://articles.latimes.com/1992-02-21/news/mn-2588_1_japanese-real-estate

    As for the Chinese, they're outspending the Japanese on real estate.

  8. Re:The Politically Correct Business BS by Pascoea · · Score: 4, Informative

    Also a difference in Unemployment Insurance claims. You get fired you get no unemployment (rationale being it was something you did that caused you to get fired.) If you get laid off (indicating it was an outside force that caused you to lose your job) you get unemployment insurance payments.

  9. Re:The Politically Correct Business BS by Trailer+Trash · · Score: 3, Insightful

    There is a difference in the terms:
    Fired = let go for cause.
    Laid off = let go due to company downsizing or similar, not due to employee fault.

    Sometimes there's a reason people use different words, and it's usually because they have different meanings.

    Not only that, but if you grew up in a factory town like I did there was a big difference between being fired and being laid off. Laid off was often temporary. If sales were down the factory would cut back on production and cut back on staffing by laying off some workers. When sales were back up the laid off workers were called up again. That's pretty normal.

  10. Not a good thing in the long run by DeplorableCodeMonkey · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Under the restructuring, LeEco will refocus on encouraging Chinese-American consumers to watch LeEco's Chinese content library, one person said.

    Note what LeEco is saying here: they're creating Chinese content for US citizens who are of Chinese descent. They're not trying to open up the American market in general the way the Japanese did with anime, video games, etc. This is targeted by ethnicity.

    More and more this seems to really be a thing with the immigrant diasporas in the West, and it's going to bring multi-culturalism down hard. Multiculturalists like to say "well the Italians integrated you racist!!" Well, yes they did, but I also know virtually no descendants of Italian immigrants that actually think they're Italian, speak Italian and frankly give a shit what happens in Italy. It is more "cultural flavor" and closer to white Southerners being proud of their heritage than a truly distinct claim on ethnicity.

    So take whatever difficulty you'd have integrating a racially diverse set of new immigrants into a still largely homogeneous society, add in a heaping dose of Capitalist encouragement to not give up the old ways and you have a recipe for long term, very severe ethnic conflict. In the long run, there are few things we all share deeply in common at group levels, but one of those things is tribalism. You can indoctrinate that out of us about as well as you can indoctrinate pack instincts out of dogs.

    1. Re:Not a good thing in the long run by Frosty+Piss · · Score: 2

      It is more "cultural flavor" and closer to white Southerners being proud of their heritage than a truly distinct claim on ethnicity.

      I take it you have never been to the deep south...

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