However, even as LeEco was marching ahead with its global ambitions, its holding company, Leishi Internet Information and Technology Corp, was struggling financially, with its shares recently halted from trading at the Shenzhen Stock exchange. LeEco itself has been facing a severe cash crunch, with the company’s CEO, Mr. Jia Yueting, even admitting that the expansion efforts “have gone too far”.
With its finances starting to become a major issue, LeEco was recently rumored to have laid off 1,400 of its employees globally, with the bulk of the job cuts coming in India. While about 200 people at LeEco’s sports video-streaming subsidiary, LeSports, lost their jobs in China as part of an organizational restructuring, almost a thousand LeEco employees were reported to have been laid off in India, mostly in the company’s sales and retail divisions. Reports out of Hong Kong now suggests that the company is also laying off as many as 60 of its employees in its Hong Kong office, although, its existing businesses and membership services will all reportedly continue to function as usual.