Taiwan personal computer giant Acer has sacked 700 of the 2,300 workers at its Malaysian plant and paid US$260,000 in benefits, according to the Star newspaper.
Acer sent letters on Thursday to the affected workers at its plant in Penang state in northwestern Malaysia, among them 350 Indonesians.
The paper quoted C.Y. Ho, managing director of Acer's Malaysian unit Acer Technologies as saying workers were paid a maximum of two months' salary besides a month's salary for each year of service, one month's bonus and a transport allowance.
"It is a painful but inevitable decision because demand for our products had gone down by almost 30 percent," Ho was quoted as telling reporters.
Acer joins other technology companies such as information storage company Seagate Technologies in laying off staff in their Malaysian operations this year, hurt by a slowdown in the global economy.
