Smartphone maker Meizu will move its Shenzhen branch back to Zhuhai and its smart home services department will begin a round of employee layoffs.

For those employees who do not want to move back to Zhuhai, they will reportedly be considered as part of the voluntary turnover. At the same time, an insider revealed that Meizu's Zhuhai headquarters will also cut at least 10% of its employees.

Meizu's Shenzhen branch was founded in August 2014 and it mainly focuses on the gaming center, smart home services, and network development. At present, this branch has 350 employees.

In June 2016, rumors swirled online that Meizu would leave Zhuhai and move to Shenzhen. At that time, the company denied the plan and said they would not relocate their Zhuhai headquarters; they said their main smartphone development and manufacturing businesses and new businesses such as LifeKit smart hardware platform would continue to operate and develop in Zhuhai. A representative from Meizu said Zhuhai and Shenzhen are close and it is normal to move parts of their businesses between the two cities.

After the rumors last year, Meizu did move their gaming center business to Shenzhen; however, their headquarters and smartphone development and manufacturing remain in Zhuhai.