Lenovo Reportedly to Cut Legion Gaming Smartphone Business

A web user who appeared to be an authentic Lenovo employee on Maimai, a Chinese workplace community, posted a message on March 22 which read, “On March 20, Lenovo officially informed that the group’s smartphone brand Legion will be completely abolished. From the former business to the current gaming phone business, Lenovo has once again cut off its own smartphone business. It now only keeps the Motorola business that it acquired for $2.9 billion in 2014.” As of March 23, Lenovo has not responded to the news.

As the only remaining brands in the current gaming phone market, the latest Lenovo Legion product is the Legion Y70 smartphone that was released in August last year. At that time, this smartphone attracted a lot of attention with its Snapdragon 8+ processor, LPDDR5+UFS3.1 storage, 144Hz ultra-high fresh rate straight display and a price of less than 3,000 yuan ($439).

Many web users on another workplace website, Momo, who are also certified as “Lenovo employees” have posted that they have been laid off. Some Motorola employees wrote, “I have asked many previous colleagues, and they were all laid off. I have not dared to ask again.” Another employee wrote that they had been transferred to other business lines, such as Lenovo’s tablet business.

According to a report by Sina Tech, some Lenovo employees who have talked with HR and signed a severance contract said, “I was evaluating a project in the morning, and scheduled to talk with HR in the afternoon.” According to the employee, the number of employees to be laid off this time is between 50 and 100. Those who signed a severance contract within three days after their talk with HR will receive N+2 compensation. If not, the compensation can only be N+1.

However, some Lenovo insiders also wrote, “Every company will have normal layoffs. It can be exaggerated to say that the whole business has been laid off. Please take the official information actually disclosed as the standard. Please do not take anonymous tips by a third party too seriously.”

SEE ALSO: Halted Acquisition by Tencent May Underpin Layoffs at Gaming Phone Firm Black Shark

Gaming smartphones are having a hard time at present. Last year, Chinese gaming smartphone brand Black Shark also faced business difficulties, and it was reported broken capital chains and large-scale layoffs.