Adidas plans to cut as many as 500 jobs in a bid to simplify its business, a person familiar with the matter confirmed to CNBC on Thursday. The layoffs will affect employees at Adidas’ headquarters in Herzogenaurach, Germany, and represent nearly 9% of the 5,800 staffers it employs at the location. The company has not determined how many jobs it will cut, but up to 500 positions could be affected, a source told CNBC. Adidas will decide the final number when it is further along in its process. Employees learned about the cuts on Wednesday, just one day after Adidas announced what it called better-than-expected preliminary profit results for its holiday quarter and 19% sales growth. It is expecting sales to grow to 5.97 billion euros, ahead of the 5.68 billion euros that analysts had expected ahead of the announcement, according to LSEG. In a statement to CNBC, a spokesperson said Adidas’ current…
