Sony Ericsson is in the middle of a surprise, major cost-cutting measure that will close some of its key buildings, an internal memo has revealed today. The cellphone designer is notifying workers that it's closing its Research Triangle Park facility in North Carolina as well as offices in Chennai (India), Kista (Sweden) and Miami. As a result, Engadget hears the company will have to drop 2,000 jobs, or more than four times the 450 jobs it dropped in 2008.

Some of those employees in the North Carolina facility will have the option of applying for jobs elsewhere, but others are leaving permanently. The cuts are poised to happen in stages rather than all at once.

The cuts are emergency measures for a company that has lost much of its influence on the phone market. Previous cuts have helped mitigate losses, but it still lost $244.7 million with both lower revenue and much smaller phone shipments than just a year earlier. Most of the downfall has been attributed to an inability to produce modern smartphones until recently as well as a muddled remaining line where multiple phones often have similar features with slightly different focuses.

The company is already shipping its first modern touchscreen smartphone, the Satio, but isn't set to launch its Android-based XPERIA X10 flagship until early next year.