HTC cuts jobs to focus on products like blockchain smartphones

Layer 1s • December 18, 2019, 1:35PM EST

Taiwanese electronics manufacturer HTC has confirmed its plan to further downsize the company.

This will be the third major lay-off round that the company has seen, Taiwanese news outlet Liberty Times reported, following a cut of 2,250 employees in 2015 and another 1,500 in July 2018.

Additionally, in Jan 2018, HTC lost around 2,000 of its engineers to Google in a $1.1 billion deal. At its peak in 2013, HTC boasted around 19,000 employees, which marks a sharp contrast to its current headcount of 3,000 people.

HTC claims that its latest workforce adjustment will allow the company to focus on innovation efforts targeting selected products, including its blockchain-backed EXODUS smartphones.

Launched in May 2018 at an initial retail price of 0.15 BTC, EXODUS allows users to access decentralized exchanges on their device and secure their assets with a hardware wallet.

This October, HTC rolled out Exodus 1, a cheaper version of its previous product with the capacity to run a full bitcoin node. The following month, the company announced its plan to release a limited edition version of its EXODUS 1 phones which will integrate Binance Chain with the device’s native wallet app.

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Yilun joined The Block in November 2019. She has a policy background and extensive experience in reporting and writing. She has worked on stories ranging from business to politics.