AePona to shed 35 jobs in restructuring

Belfast based telecoms software manufactuer AePona have confirmed they are to lay off 35 staff in a restructuring of their consultancy services business.

AePona currently employ over 150 at their headquarters in Belfast’s Interpoint centre and nearly 200 in Britain.

Created in October 1999 when the product division of Belfast firm Apion was bought in a £150 million acquisition by American company Phone.com, AePona have earned a reputation as one of the north’s fastest growing hi-tech firms, after launching their Causeway Parlay product for use in third generation mobile phones.

While the product side of AePona’s business is understood to be in good health, the first indications that the company was feeling the impact of the global telecoms downturn came earlier this year when they closed their Dublin office with the loss of around 20 jobs.

While the downturn in the international telecoms market has this year prompted thousands of job losses in the Republic, until now Northern Ireland’s IT and telecoms software sector has been largely unaffected.

(GB)