One hundred and twenty-five people lost their jobs yesterday at two Dublin-based technology companies in a further sign of weakness in the technology sector. International e-business consultancy Oniva closed with the loss of 65 jobs while Norkom Technologies announced it was to cut staff numbers by 60 - or nearly one-third of its workforce.

Oniva, which was founded in 1992, had been in negotiations with a number of potential investors since January to secure funding. In the past number of days, one of these investors had withdrawn. "Without time to involve a further investor, the management took the decision to cease trading," the company said in a statement.

A de-merger of Oniva's Dublin office, as part of the investment, was completed in the past number of weeks, with Oniva management and staff buying back the company from the Oniva NV group.

Although a cash settlement was reached by the Dublin company with its parent, an investment was still required to enable the Dublin company to return to profitability later in the year.

Mr Daragh Scaife, co-founder and director of Oniva, blamed the company's problems on the downturn in technology markets with many larger, blue-chip companies postponing projects.

"The speed at which the market changed direction has and will continue to affect even companies like us which had been trading profitably over the last year. We acted as quickly as we could in January to respond to the changing market but the continuing downturn meant that even these measures were not enough," said Mr Scaife.

At Norkom, a total of 40 jobs will be cut from the Dublin office, with 20 going from international operations as part of what the company said was a realignment of its business in order to reach profitability.

The job cuts will come in the administration, marketing and engineering departments. Norkom specialises in providing customer relationship management software products and services to clients in the financial services, insurance and telecommunications sectors.

"The CRM market remains one of the bright spots of the technology sector," said Mr Paul Kerley, president and chief executive of Norkom. "However, no technology company can be immune to the recent business reality. We have re-evaluated our business model and will defer our international expansion to focus on key regions and manage our cost base."

Mr Kerley said the reassessment followed the dramatic downturn in global financial markets with the consequent impact on demand in the software sector.

"We are acting prudently and taking this action now," he said. "However, we are confident that these steps combined with our existing cash resources will allow us to weather this downturn in the business environment."

A spokesman for Norkom said the company had raised significant funding in the past year, the most recent of which was a $17 million funding round in October, which brought total funding to $30 million. However, Norkom delayed its Nasdaq flotation late last year because of unfavourable market sentiment.

"Compared to one year ago, the conditions have changed and this is reflected in investment attitudes. There is less emphasis on pure growth stories and more on companies with paths to profit," the spokesman said. He said the company planned to reach profitability by March 2002.