A portion of the facility here will continue to operate as an engineering site, along with other administrative support functions. "As a result of the actions taken in the past few weeks, it was only logical to align the headquarters to where the executive management currently operates," Walid Maghribi, president and CEO of SIPEX says.

The company's backend activities will be transferred to its current subcontractors in Malaysia. SIPEX, a semiconductor maker, says that the move will start immediately and will be completed by the end of the current quarter. The company notes that it already performs all of its assembly and over 50% of its testing offshore. It will also transfer all of its equipment currently used in this operation to its subcontractors.

Maghribi points out that, "With the previously announced exiting of the hybrid business, the Billerica test operation no longer made sense." He adds that the closure was made to ensure the long term growth of the company. He expects, he says, that this action "will streamline our operations, reduce our lead-time to our customers and further reduce our cost structure." The closure and relocation completes the basic restructuring of SIPEX, according to a released statement. However, Maghribi notes, "we will continue to evaluate our performance and take whatever actions are required to improve our financial results."

The closure will affect 45 employees and will result in a restructuring charge in the current quarter consisting principally of severance costs related to the downsizing.