LONDON: ST-Ericsson, the wireless technology company created in February by French-Italian group STMicroelectronics and Sweden's Ericsson, have announced the loss of 1,200 jobs worldwide due to a slowdown in demand.

"A restructuring plan is underway and will be completed by the second quarter of 2010," the group said late Wednesday.

Staff levels will be "reduced by 1,200 in the world" out of a total of 8,000 following the merger of the two companies, with "sales down and a limited visibility as to an improvement in the market," ST-Ericsson said in a statement.

Last summer STMicroelectronics and Ericsson announced a 50-50 joint venture merging their semi-conductor and mobile telephone platform activities.

The operations generated, as separate entities, sales of 3.6 billion dollars in 2007.