Sony Ericsson profit rings silently in Research Triangle Park

Handset maker Sony Ericsson turned its first quarterly profit in more than a year but it's a safe bet there was no celebrating in Research Triangle Park.

The high-tech joint venture at one point employed as many as 1,000 people in RTP but began shutting down the local operation last year as part of a global restructuring.

Sony Ericsson's RTP office closed in the spring, the company said. The company's Southeast presence is now based out of Atlanta, where Sony Ericsson executives said they wanted to be closer to the world headquarters of their their biggest customer, AT&T.

Bloomberg News reported today that Sony Ericsson's third-quarter profit of $68.8 million fell below analyst expectations. The company said it couldn't meet orders for smartphones because of a shortage of circuit boards and LED screens, according to Bloomberg.

The star-crossed company was formed in 2001 as a joint venture between Japan's Sony and Sweden's Ericsson.

Sony Ericsson fortunes initially surged with the introduction of then-trendy camera phones and Sony Walkman phones. But sales soon flagged when fickle consumer tastes changed and competitors switched to making smartphones like the Blackberry and iPhone.

Last November, when Sony Ericsson was pared down to 425 employees in RTP, the company said it would shut down four sites in this country as part of a strategy to cut worldwide staff of 10,000 by 20 percent.