Sega Sammy to lay-off 400 as company sinks into red

Sega Sammy is laying off 400 employees as part of cost cutting measures following further company losses.

The company has already axed 110 unprofitable amusement arcades and reduced pay and bonuses for managerial staff. The latest move, says the company, is to offer voluntary redundancy to approximately 400, bringing staff levels to just above 3,000 employees.

"Due to Sega failing to respond to changing business environment, the operating performance of its core businesses, including the amusement facilities business and domestic consumer business, has not been performing well," said Hajime Satomi, chairman and CEO.

"As part of these measures, Sega has determined to solicit voluntary retirement of employees to reduce fixed costs and gain greater cost flexibility through optimum employment."

The company has revealed losses of JPY 15.77 (USD 210 million) billion for the nine months to December, compared to a profit of JPY 49.38 billion the year previous.

It also suffered an operating loss of JPY 1.53 billion (USD 14.2 million) against a profit of JPY 75.2 billion (USD 700 million) for the same period last year.

Having originally forecast a full year profit of JPY 1 billion (USD 9.3 million), the company has now downgraded to a net loss of JPY 26 billion (USD 242.1 million).