Dell Cuts 700 Jobs In Malaysia

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) -- Computer maker Dell Inc. will lay off 700 workers in Malaysia in a bid to cut costs, a company official said Wednesday.

The affected employees in Dell's manufacturing plant in Malaysia's northern Penang state will leave the company between January and June next year, said Dell Malaysia spokeswoman Jasmine Begum.

She said the employees, about 15 percent of Dell's workforce in Malaysia, will receive compensation.

The plant will stop making notebooks for the United States, Canada and Latin America, but it will continue to produce notebooks, desktops and servers for South Asia and Australia, Begum said.

The company employs about 4,500 people in Malaysia.

Dell last month reported a 54 percent drop in quarterly net profit and a 15 percent decline in revenue, suggesting the computer maker wasn't fully benefiting from the industry's fledgling recovery.

Dell has been hurt more than its peers because of tightened spending by corporations and large government agencies, which make up 80 percent of Dell's revenue.