Dell to lay off 700 workers in Malaysia

KUALA LUMPUR: Computer maker Dell Inc will lay off 700 workers in Malaysia in a bid to cut costs, news reports 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, Dell Malaysia spokeswoman Jasmine Begum told The Star and New Straits Times newspapers.

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, the reports said.

Dell officials familiar with plan could not immediately be reached Wednesday.

The company employs about 4,500 people in Malaysia.