Sony Ericsson warned the world just over a fortnight ago that things wouldn't be too rosy when it came time to announce Q2 results, and rosy things are not. Even though the handset maker was hoping and praying to break even at the end of the quarter, net profits ended up falling through the floor to the tune of 97%. As predicted, weak sales of mid-to-high-end mobiles were blamed for the bulk of the bad news, and it did affirm that conditions would remain rough for the rest of the year. Granted, the looming launch of the Xperia X1 should help matters a bit, but without a new stable of low-end cellies to send to emerging markets, it'll be a long road back to the top. Unfortunately, SE's sagging position in the market has left it slashing 2,000 jobs across the globe, though it didn't say exactly where the cuts would be made. It's okay SE, there's only one place to go when you're laying on the bottom... or something like that.

[Image courtesy of Flickr]

Read - Sony Ericsson's Q2 earnings
Read - Sony Ericsson plans job cuts

The UK's O2 has apparently given six employees the boot and are investigating another 20 after it came to light they were using their 20 percent staff discount to buy iPhones and sell them on eBay. While no exact number was given, apparently they bought "noticeable quantities" of everybody's favorite -- and now discontinued -- set, to help pad their retirement fund. Of course, with handset sales likely stagnating while everybody waits on the iPhone 3G, you'd think O2 might have given them a break for clearing out all that old stock.

[Via RCRNews]

The tough times just don't seem to end at Motorola -- the company announced today that it's laying off another 2,600 workers, for a total of 10,000 positions eliminated since the start of 2007. That's on top of the various high-level executive departures that have been taken place lately, not to mention the company's plan to split off its mobile phone business, which will undoubtedly lead to more cuts down the line. The goal is to reduce costs by some $500M by the end of the year, and some of the jobs being lost come as Moto closes a factory in Singapore and a WiMAX development lab in Florida. There's no word on when the cuts are going to come, but here's hoping all these aggressive steps lead to a little vacation for Sad Moto here.

We haven't heard any confirmations of this just yet, but PalmInfocenter has it that a number of Palm employees have already been shown the door and asked not to come back. Citing "reliable sources," it goes on to mention that the layoffs could reach beyond North America and could affect "hundreds" of employees. 'Course, the past few months quarters haven't been the best Palm has ever seen or anything, but this would certainly make a bad year even worse if true.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Sprint is currently looking for Gary Forsee's successor. Apparently, the firm's board began "quietly looking for a new leader in August," suggesting that key members had lost faith in current management. A new chief executive could be named by early December, and it's looking like the replacement will indeed be hired from outside of the company. Notably, the future of Sprint's substantial investment in WiMAX remains foggy, as certain analysts have questioned the sensibility of such a large commitment to a technology "that is so far unproven commercially." Regardless, it looks like a change in strategy will be the number one priority moving forward. [Warning: read link required subscription]

UPDATE: Gary Forsee has indeed stepped down. The firm's CFO, Paul Saleh, was named acting CEO, while James Hance, Jr. will serve as acting chairman.

[Via BloggingStocks, thanks Matt H. for the update]