As part of its global streamlining effort, Canadian multimedia software developer Corel Corp decided over the weekend to reduce its local workforce by about 12 percent, or 50 employees, people familiar with the company said.
The cuts will mainly be in the marketing and audio/video product divisions, the sources said.
Calls to the company’s Taipei office to confirm the job cuts were not answered yesterday, which was a holiday.
However, Jeremy Liang (梁國屏), the company’s chief executive for Taiwan and the Greater China area, earlier confirmed the move when contacted by the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper).
Liang declined to elaborate.
Prior to the layoff decision, Corel recruited around 400 employees in Taiwan and was in the process of expanding its research and development workforce after the company announced in March that it would transfer its Minnesota R&D operations to Taiwan, the Digitimes reported on March 13, citing Liang.
Worldwide, the Ottawa-based maker of WordPerfect software is expected to reduce its total workforce by 90 employees, or about 8 percent, the company said in a statement posted on its Web site on Wednesday.
The company expects the move to trim overheads will help it increase operational efficiency.
“Corel, like any company, must make periodic adjustments to ensure we are running as efficiently as possible and that we are focusing our teams and resources on the areas we believe offer the best opportunities for growth,” Kris Hagerman, interim chief executive officer, said in the statement.
The company said the job cuts would also facilitate expansion of its sales and marketing activities in emerging markets and enhance its e-commerce services, which Hagerman believes can improve both Corel’s financial performance and long-term competitive position in the market.
Hagerman, formerly a president of Data Center Management of Symantec Corp, was appointed as Corel’s interim CEO on May 5 after his predecessor, David Dobson, left the company in April for a senior executive position at a Fortune 500 company based in the US.
Corel’s latest job cuts came amid reports that it was in talks with a third party regarding a potential sale of the firm.
But the company reiterated in its statement that no agreement had been reached regarding a sale.
The Canadian software maker is searching for strategic alternatives to improve its financial strength and enhance shareholder value — news that it first broke in a statement on Aug. 18.
Corel is known for its multimedia application software, including WinZip, WinDVD and Paint Shop Pro.
In the past two to three years, it acquired Fremont, California-based Intervideo Inc and Taiwan’s Ulead Systems (友立資訊) with an eye to increasing sales in the Asia -Pacific region and making Corel Taiwan the company’s Asia-Pacific regional operation center.
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