Other PEZA factories to employ Lexmark workers — PHL official

Employees of printer maker Lexmark International Philippines will be absorbed by other companies based in the Mactan Economic Zone, the Philippine Economic Zone Authority said Thursday.   The American company plans to shutdown its Philippine operations in 2015, or 16 years since it started making printers in Cebu. The closure would affect 1,100 workers, or about a third of Lexmark’s workforce in the Philippines.   According to an Aug. 28 Reuters report, “… Lexmark International Inc. said it will stop making inkjet printers and focus on its more profitable imaging and software businesses…   “Lexmark, never a big player in inkjet printers, said it would continue to sell laser printers as it beefs up its print services business, for which it has made several acquisitions over the last couple of years.   “The company said it planned to sell about 1,000 inkjet-related patents and would cut 1,700 jobs, or 13 percent of its workforce. A company spokesman said Lexmark was being advised by Goldman Sachs to explore the sale of inkjet-related technology, which includes about 1,000 patents worldwide,” the Reuters report noted.   "PEZA will help [Lexmark employees in the Philippines] find new employment within the ecozone," PEZA director general Lilia de Lima told reporters at the sidelines of the groundbreaking ceremonies for Toyota Motor’s international technical school in Santa Rosa, Laguna.   Apart from the Mactan factory, Lexmark established software and firmware development and test laboratories under Lexmark Research and Development Corp. at the Cebu Business Park, with a shared services center in the same place.   More than 3,000 employees in these facilities were already informed of the planned shutdown.   Lexmark occupies more than three hectares of the 63-hectare Mactan Economic Zone 2. — VS, GMA News