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LG cuts staff from Silicon Valley lab, says webOS development will continue

LG cuts staff from Silicon Valley lab, says webOS development will continue

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Around 20 staffers have been laid off

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LG has conducted a round of layoffs at its Silicon Valley lab, home of its webOS development team. The company cut around 20 members of its staff in what LG characterized as a realignment to improve efficiency. "These changes will not negatively impact LG’s webOS development efforts in any way," LG told The Verge in a statement. LG acquired webOS back in 2013 and has been using the platform as the operating system for its line of TVs and in smartwatches.

LG says it is combining its user interface and product management groups at the labs into one division, and the new group would continue to focus on webOS development along with new areas like "automotive platforms." Reducing a development team and the expansion of an OS to a new platform usually don't go together, but that's what LG is sticking to.

A source close to the situation said it would be challenging for the remaining staff to keep innovating on the platform with the reductions to the team. "They're going to have a tough time of it," the source said.