Hope Bay Technologies Inc (和沛科技), a cloud-computing technology developer in which Hon Hai Group (鴻海集團) has invested, yesterday confirmed that it plans to cut jobs as it streamlines product portfolios to cater to strategic partners’ needs.
The announcement came as a shock to the nation’s start-up circles, given Hope Bay founder Ben Jai’s (翟本喬) strong background in the cloud-computing industry. Jai was a former platform architect at Google and a scientist with Nokia Bell Labs before that.
“As the company’s partners alter their product lineups to adapt to market changes, we have to make adjustments accordingly,” Jai said on Facebook. “We shut down a public cloud platform, which had not yet been launched.”
Hope Bay would continue to develop and sell cloud-computing products that are available on the market and have been adopted by clients, Jai said, adding that it would also continue providing maintenance services to its clients.
“We still have sufficient capital to sustain the team,” Jai said.
Hope Bay, a private company, was established in 2013 with NT$86 million (US$2.67 million) of share capital, Ministry of Economic Affairs data showed.
Hon Hai owns a 40 percent stake in the company via its venture capital fund and a data storage subsidiary.
Jai’s comments followed a report published by the Chinese-language China Times on Tuesday that said Hope Bay plans to lay off 80 percent of its workforce this month.
The company has hired about 110 to 120 employees, it added.
Hope Bay does not have as many employees as stated in the report, Jai said on Facebook.
“We will not violate related rules based on the number of employees to be laid off,” he added.
Jai did not disclose how many employees would be dismissed.
Hope Bay operates a subsidiary, Kaohsiung-based Hope Bay Mobile Inc (和沛移動), which develops mobile applications.
The Act for Worker Protection of Mass Redundancy (大量解僱勞工保護法) stipulates that a business with 200 to 500 workers must give at least 60 days’ notice if it plans to lay off more than one-third of its employees over a two-month period, or fire more than 20 workers in one day.
Contravening the act can result in fines of between NT$30,000 and NT$150,000.
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