LeEco laying off 70pc of its workforce in the US

In the light of growing financial crisis, Chinese tech company LeEco is laying off a majority of its workforce in the United States. On Tuesday, the company said it was cutting 325 employees, or 70 percent of the workforce of its US business, due to a lack of funding.

While LeEco says that will continue operations in the United States but the focus would now be on the niche market of Chinese-speaking households.

"The breadth of our business model is capital intensive," LeEco said in a statement. "As a result, the capital we do have will have to be highly focused resulting in a significant restructuring and streamlining of our business, operations and workforce."

Apparently, LeEco's troubles stemmed from its expansion to the U.S. The resulting cash crunch has led to a series of layoffs in global markets including India and delayed payments to staff in the US. The company picked up a $2.4 billion investment at the start of the year, but it had to shelve its plans to acquire Vizio.

Beyond the cuts, LeEco will shut down the engineering operations in San Diego, concentrating its team in San Jose. The company hasn't said whether it will sell the property it acquired from Yahoo. A LeEco spokeswoman said the company still believes its products are competitive through this year, although there was no comment on whether it would continue to release new gadgets.