A quite bigger than expected quarterly loss was posted by the world number three mobile phone maker Sony Ericsson and the company also informed regarding its plans for further cost cuts, possibly including jobs, as it braced for even weaker demand.

It was reported by President Dick Komiyama that this year will see shrinkage of global demand by at least 5 percent. It was further informed by him that market share was less of a main concern than preserving profitability.

A 262 million Euro ($346 million) pretax loss in the three months to end-December was made by Sony Ericson. A profit of 501 million was registerd a year earlier with Ericsson and Sony venture.

Automobile giant, Bajaj Auto posted 22.43 per cent decline in net profit for the quarter ended December 2008. Its net profit stands at Rs 166 crore as against Rs 214 crore in the same period last year.

Decline in vehicle sales and tight liquidity conditions contributed to the decline in profit for the quarter under consideration.

Company's turnover declined 15.84 percent and currently stands at Rs 2,141 crore. It sold 493,748 units of vehicles with 31 per cent decline as compared to 713,135 units sold in the same period last year.

The global financial crisis has adversely impacted the Indian aviation sector and it has posted 5 per cent decrease in domestic air traffic for the calendar year 2008. About
411 lakh people used air services in 2008 as compared to 433 lakh in 2007. Number of air travelers posted negative growth rate first time in last six years.

High air fares and low customer spending affected the airline industry during the period. Almost all leading air lines posted negative passenger growth rate except low cost carriers IndiGo and SpiceJet and south-based Paramount.

It might be disheartening to know that the IT Examiner sources have revealed that IBM might be dismissing 16,000 workers in 2009 and those belonging to the hardware area would suffer the most.

“We came to know about the 16,000 job cuts. The reports are true though nothing has been made official yet from the management’s side. It will definitely have huge impact on IBM jobs mainly in parts like China, Europe and US,” reported the IT Examiner, quoting a source.

Beijing - Chinese-owned computer maker Lenovo on Thursday said it plans to lose about 2,500 staff, or 10 per cent of its global workforce, in the next three months.

The redundancies are a key part of a restructuring package designed to save Lenovo some 300 million dollars in its next financial year, which begins on April 1, the company said in a statement.

Lenovo, owned by China's Legend group, said it expects to announce a loss for the three months to December 31 last year, following a sharp drop in net profit for the previous quarter.

Indian exporters may announce large scale retrenchment drive in days to come to pressurize government for more financial relief to exporters. Director-general of the Federation of Indian Export Organizations, Ajay Sahai said, "The global economic demand is going down - that is the prime concern. The order book situation is pretty bad. From January onwards, we will have a lot of closures of units. "