ITouch, the mobile phone services provider 50 per cent owned by Independent News & Media, has made its entire Irish IT division redundant as mounting losses force a radical reappraisal of its business strategies.
Twelve software developers at iTouch's Citywest complex in Dublin were given notice this week and finished working yesterday. Just 23 administrative and marketing employees remain.
ITouch said technology staff were being shed as part of a rationalisation plan that would see it repositioned as a media and services player.
The company, which employs 350 worldwide, stressed it was committed to Citywest and did not anticipate further layoffs there.
Yesterday's job losses follow a disappointing year for the group, established in South Africa at the height of the telecoms boom in 1998.
ITouch posted a €1.7 million loss before deductions in the third quarter of 2002, although revenues climbed 25 per cent to €20 million.
Management signalled its determination to retreat from the recession-hit technology sector with the purchase last November of British high-street mobile phone distributor m4 for €2.4 million.
"The business is shifting strategies. Going forward we envisage iTouch operating as media company rather than a technology one and obviously this is going to have a knock-on effect," said a spokesman for iTouch Ireland.
