Freescale offices in Herzilya
Photo: Michel Dor
Freescale to transfer 50 workers to AMD
After laying off 170 employees, US chip company places 50 employees of its Application Processors division at AMD's first development center in Israel
After laying off 170 of its employees in its center in Israel last week, US chip company Freescale is placing the 50 workers of its Application Processors division in jobs at AMD's first development center in the country. The employees were officially notified of the move on Monday.
Freescale denies that it is placing the employees in jobs at AMD, but refuses to say whether the two companied are holding negotiations.
High-Tech Layoffs
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Freescale has been negotiating over the past several days with several major high-tech companies to place one of its employee groups in jobs within one of the companies, including AMD and Apple.
Calcalist has learned that even before the layoff rounds, Freescale attempted to sell the Application Processors division but could not reach an agreement in regards to the price. Now the company is trying to find alternative jobs for its former employees.
Calcalist has further learned that some of the employees who were sacked had received notice that their dismissal would be suspended for six months and that when it came into effect, they would receive severance payment equivalent of nine monthly salaries.
Meanwhile, Freescale is planning another layoff round of about 100 employees next June.
US chip maker AMD was until recently Freescale's rival in the chip market; however, a year ago it announced its plan to pull out of the home computer market. Last month it launched a line of processors for Windows 8-based tablet computers, moving its competition with Intel into the tablet arena.
Estimates on the market are that hiring the engineers from Freescale may shore up AMD's efforts to enter the ARM-based processor arena.
This report was originally published in Hebrew by Calcalist
