By Li Panpan

(JW Insights) Nov 16 -- UK-based chip design company Imagination Technologies will let go 20% of its employees worldwide, including staff at its Chinese unit, due to global economic factors, reported Chinese media outlets and Reuters.

Imagination will shrink its staff count because of the challenging "business environment" over the last 18 months, according to a Reuters report on November 13, citing an internal message. The cuts are company-wide and affect every subsidiary, it said, adding that the London-based firm had 559 employees at the end of last year.

A Yicai Global report on November 15 said, quoting insiders that the scale of Imagination’s layoffs in China will be consistent with those worldwide.

Set up in 1985, Imagination creates and licenses market-leading processor solutions for graphics, computing, and vision and artificial intelligence processing, according to its website. Up to 84 percent of its workforce is involved in research and development.

Imagination was acquired in 2017 by California-based Canyon Bridge Capital Partners, a private equity firm backed by Chinese state-owned investment holding company China Reform Holdings.

In 2020, Imagination inked a deal to supply Apple with chip technology. However, its shares dropped 70% when Apple said it would develop its own technology.

Liu Guojun, vice president and general manager of Imagination China, said China remains an important component of the company's business strategy. It has been working with semiconductor companies to provide services for local firms to independently design chips and build a chip ecosystem. His team will continue to be committed to serving Chinese ecosystem partners and customers, according to the Yicai Global report.