Wanda to Slash Internet Division (Report)
China’s Dalian Wanda Group is poised to make massive staff cuts at its struggling internet technology arm.
According to Chinese media The Paper, over 1,000 staff members of Wanda Internet Technology Group were given written termination notices on Thursday. They take effect from January 1, 2018.
Other sources put the total staff cut figures far higher. Some employees who joined less than a year ago were asked instead to “resign” from their current positions. Including these, the staff numbers could fall from 6,000 at present to just 300, a 95% reduction.
The Paper reported that Dalian Wanda chairman Wang Jianlin had high hopes for the technology arm, which has an emphasis on home shopping, complementing the gropup’s shopping mall empire. Wang had hoped that by 2020 it would have annual revenues of over $1.5 billion (RMB10 billion) and be in a position to launch an IPO.
Wanda Group declined to comment directly on The Paper’s report. But sources close to the group told Variety that Wanda Internet Technology Group has been going through major “re-adjustment” and staff cuts were merely some of the many measures.
Wanda, which emerged from property to build the world’s largest cinemas empire, has been in retreat for the last several months. That followed a government crackdown measures that focused on over-aggressive corporate expansion.
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