Financial Troubles Push LeEco Toward Layoffs
Chinese tech company LeEco will lay off 350 U.S. employees and halt its massive Silicon Valley expansion. These layoffs are about 65% of the company’s entire workforce, the Silicon Valley Business Journal reports.
LeEco, considered the Netflix of China, bought 49 acres in Santa Clara last year from Yahoo with the dream of building a global hub for 12,000 employees. The company opened its San Jose office to be its U.S. headquarters in 2016 when it originally wanted to expand its U.S. footprint. The company later sold the building at 3553 North First St. to Chinese firm Han’s Group in a leaseback deal in April. Future expansions remain on hold until the company fixes its financial problems.
In March, reports suggested LeEco was closing in on a sale of the Santa Clara land to Chinese developer Genzon Group for $260M.