From Bankrupt to Backer
February 8, 2007
"These plans are tasteless, arrogant and a slap in the face for all those who lost their job," IG Metall union spokesman Georgios Arwanitidis told Thursday's edition of the daily Berliner Zeitung.
The same paper quoted Rainer Brüderle from the free-market liberal FDP party as saying, "It is understandable that the employees who have just been sacked are outraged by this news."
BenQ Mobile -- formerly the mobile phone business of German electronics giant Siemens until it was taken over by Taiwan-based BenQ in 2005 -- filed for insolvency at the end of September.
Some 2,000 people, who used to be employed by BenQ Mobile in Germany, have been out of work since Jan. 31. They were laid off in an attempt to safeguard the remaining 1,000 jobs at the insolvent company, which in the past 12 months made losses worth 850 million euros ($1 billion).
A hefty deal
On Monday, BenQ was unveiled as the fourth official sponsor for Euro 2008 to be played in Austria and Switzerland, joining Adidas, Castrol and Continental. The company was also a sponsor of Euro 2004 and is shirt sponsor of Spanish club Real Madrid.
The latest deal is said to be worth at least 15 million euros, with others naming figures between 30 million and 40 million euros.
"If BenQ wants to make an image campaign, it can start here in Kamt-Lintfort by spending the same sum they are giving UEFA on the creation of new jobs," IG Metall official Ulrich Marschner from the former BenQ Mobile plant in western German Kamp-Lintfort told the Neue Rhein/Neue Ruhr Zeitung.
Court proceedings
The news of Euro 2008's sponsorship deal with the Taiwanese company came less then a week after insolvency proceedings were opened against BenQ Mobile in Germany.
After the court-appointed administrator Martin Prager failed to find a buyer for the company, a court in Munich said that BenQ's production operations in Munich and Kamp-Lintfort would be shut down.
A spokeswoman for the Munich court said it was still possible that an investor could take over part of the operation during the insolvency proceedings.
According to reports, some 500 BenQ Mobile employees have already found positions elsewhere. If an 11th-hour buyer doesn't turn up, the remaining 2,500 can receive a portion of their paycheck for up to a year, paid for by a state-sponsored transitional employment agency, until they can be placed in other jobs.