Dot Com News from Week of January 28, 2002

• 2/1/02 - TDK, the world's biggest maker of magnetic heads for hard-disk drives, said that it aimed to cut an additional 400 jobs by March as part of efforts to improve profitability through cost cuts. The move followed TDK's October announcement that it would slash its global work force by 24 percent, or 8,860 people, by March 2004.
• 1/31/02 - Ubrandit.com announced that the company has filed Chapter 7 Bankruptcy proceedings in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Utah. The bankruptcy filings arise from current economic and market difficulties in attracting venture and investment capital in the competitive area of technologies research and development.
• 1/31/02 - Lucent Technologies, which has reduced its Merrimack Valley work force by half in the past year, has notified workers that another 800 jobs will be cut by the end of March. Lucent, a telecommunications equipment maker, currently has 2,700 employees in its North Andover facility. It plans to trim down to 1,550 workers in preparation for a sale of some of its manufacturing lines.
• 1/31/02 - McLeodUSA Inc., crippled by an unmanageable debt load, filed for bankruptcy-law protection with a proposal for the telecom-services provider that calls for additional funds from longtime investor Forstmann Little & Co.
• 1/29/02 - Toys 'R' Us plans to eliminate 1,900 jobs, or about 3 percent of its permanent work force; close 64 U.S. stores; and consolidate support services as part of a plan to cut costs and boost profits.
• 1/29/02 - Hitachi Ltd, Japan's biggest electronics maker, said it plans to eliminate 4,000 jobs in Japan by the end of June via an early retirement scheme, adding to 16,350 global job cuts planned for the year to March.
• 1/29/02 - Ticketmaster, which sells tickets and online personal ads and operates online entertainment guides through Citysearch, reported a fourth-quarter loss and said it plans 111 layoffs at its Citysearch online tour-guide service.
• 1/29/02 - NextCard Inc. slashed its staff by about 19%, or 170 people, according to a Form 8-K filed Tuesday with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The filing said the reductions came from all areas of the company's operations. NextCard, San Francisco, offers automated online credit card application processing and approval.
• 1/28/02 - Global Crossing filed for Chapter 11 in the biggest telecom collapse so far. Hutchison and Singapore Technologies have signed a preliminary pact to take a 60% interest in the reorganized firm.