NB PC Makers in China, Korea Poaching Talents from Taiwan

Taipei, Nov. 28, 2012 (CENS)--Head hunting campaigns initiated by foreign rivals have begun in Taiwan's notebook PC industry, as China's Lienpal Hefei Ltd. and Korea's Samsung have reportedly moved to poach talents from Taiwanese laptop manufacturers and brand vendors recently, according to industry insiders.

Despite widespread industrial depressions worldwide, Lienpal and Samsung have actively recruited experienced personnel from Taiwan by allegedly offering 20-30% higher salaries than they receive currently as incentives, which are even more attractive than offered by their U.S. peers.

Lienpal, a joint venture between China's Lenovo and Taiwan's Compal Electronics Inc. and now with a workforce of 300-400 employees in Taiwan, is said to have moved to recruit R&D engineers from Quanta Computer Inc., Wistron Corp. and Pegatron Corp.

The head hunting campaigns are very likely to trouble Taiwanese notebook PC makers, as a number of their employees have been fascinated by high salaries offered by the two said foreign firms, and hence may consider quitting current jobs for new ones after witnessing major companies in the line, including Quanta and Compal, just cut their workforces in response to a slack market.

Worse is that as profitability of contract manufacturing of laptops is on the decline, Taiwanese companies have been forced to cut employee bonuses over the past years, a move that may cause a wave of job hopping among their workers at a time when their Chinese and Korean rivals offer attractive salaries to poach talents on the island.

Institutional investors opine that it makes sense that Lienpal and Samsung are actively engaged in new worker recruitments to expand workforces, for global market researchers expect Lenovo and Samsung to see their laptop sales continue to grow in 2013.

Taiwan's Major NB PC Makers
Company	Customers	Employees in Taiwan (approximated)
Compal Electronics Inc.	Dell, Lenovo, Samsung	4,500
Quanta Computer Inc.	Apple, HP	Over 5,000
Wistron Corp.	Dell, Lenovo, Acer	4,500
Inventec Corp.	Toshiba, Fujitsu, HP	2,500
Pegatron Corp.	HP, Apple, Asus, Lenovo	5,500

Source: Institutional investors