Aaron Lee, Taipei; Jessie Shen

 

Inventec plans to fire as many as 432 employees, according to sources close to the company, adding that it is being carried out starting today (October 27). The sources blamed an unexpected drop in tablet PC orders for the layoff.

Inventec has to stop production of Hewlett-Packard's (HP) webOS tablet PCs, and also expects no new orders for other devices, the sources indicated.

In response, Inventec spokesperson Alexander Hsu said the company is looking to scale down its tablet PC related departments. Hsu did not disclose the number of staff being laid off.

Rumors have circulated since early October that Inventec would make significant adjustments to its workforce, but the company responded saying it was still evaluating options and had not reached a conclusion.

Fellow company Quanta Computer in September revealed plans to offer preferential compensation to lay off about 1,000 workers. Sources claimed the move was due to a large decrease in orders from Research in Motion (RIM) for its PlayBook-series tablets.