Gigabyte to slash 5-10 percent of its workforce?

Market watchers told DigiTimes that Gigabyte is about to reorganize to slash its expenditures. The company is suffering from weak graphics card and motherboard sales and this will reportedly result in job cuts as well as a reduced marketing expenses. According to the site, the firm may cut 5 to 10 percent of its workforce this year.

As demand for graphics card is expected to experience a sharp decline and motherboard sales will stay weak in 2019, most motherboard/graphics card players are likely to see shrinking revenues from the segments in the year. To minimize the impact, Asustek Computer, Micro-Star International (MSI) and Gigabyte have all tightened up control of their expenses.

Gigabyte's motherboard business is expected to be the primary target for layoffs, while there have been no plans to cut workforce at the graphics card business yet, according to the market observers.

Gigabyte expects to ship over 10 million motherboards this year, down from 11.45 million in 2018, 12.6 million in 2017 and 16 million in 2016. Graphics card sales slipped to 3.5 million units in 2018, the same level as 2016, after an extraordinary strong 2017 with 4.8 million units shipped thanks to booming cryptocurrency mining demand.