Apple sacks staff, bids adieu to India

BANGALORE: Apple

Computers had decided to pull out its software development and support

operations in India and sacked its staff, a report said.

However, the firm's 25-men strong sales and marketing arm would continue

operations here, the Times of India reported today.

Apple had commenced operations on April and hired about 30 people for its

subsidiary, Apple Services India Pvt Ltd. It had planned to hire 3000 people in

the country by 2007.

The company decided to pull out after it re-evaluated its operations. An

Apple officer conveyed this to the employees on May 29. The sacked employees

would get a severance package equivalent to their two months' salary.

The exact reason behind the pull out decision was not immediately know.

“We've re-evaluated our plans and decided to put our support centre

growth in other countries,” the newspaper quoted Apple spokesperson Steve

Dowling. The report did not mention the “other countries.”

According to a sacked employee, the company had told them that its operations

would now head back to the US.

“It started off with building dreams. We were not given any warning,” the

employee, who was not identified in the report, said.

Another employee said that the Apple officials on May 15 were “highly

appreciative of the workforce and the task it would execute in India."

Meanwhile, BV Naidu, director of Software Technology Parks of India

(Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh) told CyberMedia News that he was unaware of the

development.

Steve

Jobs, CEO of Apple, was expected to visit India in September this year after

he postponed his April visit.

© CyberMedia News