Dot Com News from Week of February 12, 2001

• 2/15/01 - Broadband Sports Inc., best known for producing Web sites for famous athletes such as Anna Kournikova, announced it is shutting down. The company employs 160 people. The company plans to sell its various assets. Broadband ran a number of sites, including AthletesDirect.com, LegendsDirect.com and RotoNewsDirect.com, a fantasy site.
• 2/15/01 - Cable channel CNBC said it is cutting one-quarter of its full-time Internet staff and a small number of television personnel as part of its efforts to trim costs and consolidate its online and TV groups. CNBC.com will cut 26 of its 100 full-time employees as well as part-time and free-lance employees.
• 2/15/01 - For the first time in its 16-year history, Dell Computer is eliminating about 1,700 jobs, or about 4% of its total work force.
• 2/15/01 - Vicinity Corp., a leading provider of Internet-based marketing infrastructure services, announced today a 20 percent reduction of its staff worldwide in order to align its operating expenses to meet current market conditions.
• 2/14/01 - eTown.com laid off its entire staff and has shut down operations. Etown, which provided news and reviews about consumer electronics products, has run out of money.
• 2/12/01 - PlanetRX, said it will cease selling health and beauty products next month to focus on prescriptons for cancer, HIV and transplant patients. The company will direct most current customers to Drugstore.com.
• 2/12/01 - Zefer, one of the few Internet consulting firms still private, has laid off 120 employees, cutting approximately 15 percent of its total work force.
• 2/12/01 - Quokka Sports, the official Web site for the Summer Olympics, reported that they will cut 217 employees, or 59 percent of its work force. The company attributed the reorganization to a slumping online advertising market that has devastated Web sites providing free information.