TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan’s Next Apple News Network is planning to lay off 50 employees less than five months after its launch, reports said Tuesday (Jan. 10).

Singapore businessman Joseph Phua (潘杰賢) launched the media company last Sept. 1, emphasizing it bore no relationship to the previous Apple Daily, though he announced he was employing 96% of the more than 200 staff from Apple Online.

However, employees received a message from management on Tuesday asking them to choose between leaving the company, being reassigned, or being laid off, UDN reported. Taipei City’s Department of Labor Affairs said Tuesday afternoon it had not yet received the necessary notice from a company of Next Apple’s size that it planned to dismiss at least one-fourth of its staff or more than 50 people in one day.

Market requirements and international changes led to the need for a reorganization, the company reportedly told its staff. The first 50 employees who signed on to leave voluntarily would receive the highest possible severance pay, with their jobs ending on Jan. 20, per UDN.

The original Taiwan version of the Apple Daily stopped publishing a printed newspaper edition in May 2021 after 18 years. Plans for a takeover ran into trouble when suspicions arose that investors from China might be involved until Phua showed up and launched the new company. He said at the time that his project would require NT$300 million (US$9.84 million) to NT$400 million per year.