No word on status of iAsiaWorks' S'pore office
On June 22, iAsiaWorks said it laid off 77 employees from Hong Kong and 50 from its US operations to cut costs.
A check at its central Singapore office at Shaw Tower found the premises deserted.
During the visit, a building supervisor said the company had "not been around for some time" and that it surrendered the keys on July 2. According to her, iAsiaWorks had been using the office space for "two to three months only".
It is unclear how many workers were employed here.
A spokesperson for California-based iAsiaWorks said in an email response Friday that the company was restructuring "in hope of emerging a stronger, more viable company".
She added that the company would refrain from making comments to the media until results of the restructuring are known.
Unlike its operations in Hong Kong, Korea and Taiwan, in Singapore, iAsiaWorks does not operate physical data centers.
Instead, the company has been using the services of Webvisions Pte Ltd since January 2000, which included co-location services.
A Webvisions spokesperson declined to comment on both parties' financial arrangements. She further refused to reveal other services extended to iAsiaWorks.
iAsiaWorks is also said to provide hosting services through strategic partners in countries like Australia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia and New Zealand.
"The impact of the restructuring and extraordinary costs will be a charge to expense of approximately US$700,000 in the second quarter," iAsiaWorks said in the statement. "As a result of the layoffs, the company expects to save US$9 million per year in operating expense."
On June 29, it announced that it would shut down its Hong Kong operations "to reduce debt load and ongoing operating costs". It will lose approximately US$10.4 million in annualized revenues as a result of the closure of three 100,000 sq ft Internet data centers there.
iAsiaWorks posted revenues of US$9.4 million for the first quarter of this year, up 98 percent compared with the same quarter in 2000. Revenues from hosting, co-location and other managed services made up about US$5.6 million of total revenues in the first quarter of this year.
However, net loss for the first quarter of 2001 was US$34.6 million, or US$0.87 per share. This compares with a net loss for the fourth quarter of 2000 of US$21 million, or US$0.53 per share.