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Total of 50 Anobit employees have parted with Apple since acquisition
Photo: Shutterstock

Apple downsizing activity in Herzliya

Technological giant dismisses 10 of 150 workers at its development center. Year after it bought Anobit, some 25% of Israeli startup's employees no longer work for Apple

Apple is carrying on with its efforts to downsize operations at its Herzliya development center, a year after its establishment.

 

In recent days the technological giant has dismissed 10 employees from its SSD drive development department, some of them engineers, leaving the department with just several workers.

 

Apple's flash drive (SSD) is considered a marginal activity in the development centers, which employs a total of 140-150 workers.

 

Most of the center's employees are developing the memory signal processing (MSP) controller – the main reason for Apple's acquisition of Israeli startup Anobit a year ago. The flash memories of Apple products, like the iPhone and MacBok, is based on this controller.

 

The SSD drive development department was founded in 2010 in Anobit in a bid to develop and sell SSD-based servers and drives to computer and server manufacturers, combining Anobit's cash cow – the MSP flash memory technology.

 

Since buying Anobit for $390 million last year, when the company employed 200 workers, Apple downsized the drive development department and dismissed several of its workers, in addition to dozens of marketing and administration workers.

 

All of Anobit's founders left Apple later on, and the head of Apple's development center in Haifa, Aharon Aharon, was put in direct charge of the department.

 

A total of 50 Anobit employees have left or have been fired by Apple since the acquisition.

 

Calcalist has learned that after terminating its SSD drives supply agreement with Anobit, Apple plans to purchase SSD drives from Intel. Apple has been tightening its relations with Intel over the past year at the expense of its competitor Samsung and British chip technology supplier ARM.

 

While cutting its activity in Herzliya, Apple is expanding its operations in Israel and is holding talks with some 40 engineers who have been fired from Texas Instruments for position at a new development center in Raanana.

 

At the same time, the company is recruiting electrical engineers from all chip makers in a bid to have 200 workers in Haifa. Apple's long-term recruitment plan includes some 500 electrical engineers in Israel.

 

Apple declined to comment on this report.

 

 


פרסום ראשון: 01.11.13, 15:05
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