AMSTERDAM—Philips’ new CEO announced plans on Monday to cut around 4,000 jobs following falling sales and after a massive recall slashed around 70 percent off the Dutch medical equipment maker’s market value in the past year.
“We have now had five quarters of declining sales, declining profit, and now … (in the third quarter) we also have become loss-making,” CEO Roy Jakobs, just a week into the role, said in a telephone interview.
“You really need to work your cost base to stay competitive and to support your profit … I am also looking at simplifying the organization.”
He described the layoffs, which will be concentrated in the United States and the Netherlands and primarily affecting business lines with falling sales, as “unfortunate, but necessary.”…