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Chinese Media Maker Loses MGM, Closes Two Plants, Exits Other Services
Taipei-based media manufacturer Infodisc, which purchased U.S replicator Mediacopy in 2002 for $100 million, has laid off a reported 256 full-time employees at the Mediacopy plant in El Paso, TX, Infodisc's main manufacturing and distribution plant in the U.S. The company also terminated over 200 part-time and seasonal workers. The lay-offs commenced Dec. 8. The plant had a reported 732 employees at the beginning of 2003.
Additional lay-offs were scheduled to take place at Infodisc's manufacturing and distribution centers in Reno and Louisville, and Infodisc will close those facilities in 2004, the company confirmed to DVD Report. Infodisc has also apparently closed its maquilladora reciprocal manufacturing facility across the border from El Paso, in Juarez, Mexico.
The job cutbacks are putatively attributable to Infodisc's loss of MGM Home Entertainment, its anchor DVD and VHS client. Informed speculation suggests that MGM has taken its business to Cinram, which has acquired a 500,000-square-foot facility in Tennessee that could accommodate MGM's media manufacturing work.
The El Paso Times reported the Texas plant lay-offs in a front- page story. The paper quoted laid-off employees as...