SMART Technologies to lay off 45 in Kanata next year
The Ottawa Business Journal is reporting this morning that interactive whiteboard maker SMART Technologies will shed 45 jobs at its Kanata manufacturing plant early in 2011. The Calgary based firm has about 500 people working in Kanata.
According to the Journal, SMART is moving some of its production to Europe to position the company closer to one of its key markets and that it is not due to sales problems and that there are no plans to close down the plant.
In July, the company raised US $660 Million in the largest Canadian tech IPO in a decade and began trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange. From an initial sale price of $17.80 in July, share prices quickly plummeted to a low of $10.96 on September 9th. The stock is currently trading stood around $13.00.
Most of SMART's sales currently go to education. Its digital whiteboards have been used by school boards across three continents, with more than 360,000 units sold in Europe, Asia and North America.
