With so much in the news about job cuts and closures of well-known dot com companies, we at SearchtheWeb.com thought we would track these companies and Internet related sites and provide you with updated short news announcements on their status.

Dot Com News from Week of March 10, 2003

3/16/03 In an effort to return BMG to the black, Chairman Mr. Schmidt-Holtz cut 1,500 jobs, or about 20% of the company's work force, and sharply reduced such perks as the fresh flowers on every floor of BMG's New York headquarters and the newspaper subscriptions and evening limousine service for employees. More importantly, he says he is trying to change the culture, insisting that BMG's labels can't miss release targets because artists are late finishing their albums -- an excuse music companies frequently give for missing their quarterly earnings. 3/14/03 Philips Semiconductors, the chip division of the Dutch electronics giant, announced that it will close semiconductor fabrication facilities, or fabs, in San Antonio and in Albuquerque, N.M., this year in an effort to return to profitability. It also plans to shutter business offices in Europe and the United States. It plans to reduce employee headcount by around 1,600 this year. 3/14/03 Infineon Technologies AG said it will cut 80 jobs in its Berlin fiber-optics business as the telecommunications infrastructure market continues to slump. The German semiconductor company is in talks with labor representatives over the cutbacks in Berlin, where it has a total of 320 employees. 3/14/03 Terayon Communication Systems Inc., a broadband technology supplier, is eliminating 20% of its staff and closing some facilities to cut expenses. The Santa Clara-based Terayon said about 100 people will lose their jobs. 3/12/03 Verizon New Jersey could be facing another round of job cuts. After eliminating 1,000 jobs last year -- including some 360 layoffs -- the president of the company said that growing competition from rivals and falling revenues could lead to more job reductions this year. 3/12/03 Vivendi Universal SA's pay-TV unit, Canal Plus Group, said it will lay off 305 employees from its 3,038-strong work force, or roughly 10% of its staff, as part of its restructuring. Of the job cuts, 251 will be at Canal Plus Group's flagship French network, Canal Plus SA. The remaining 54 posts will be cut at movie studio StudioCanal. Canal Plus Group said it will also outsource an additional 138 jobs. The layoffs are part of parent Vivendi Universal's drive to reduce the troubled TV unit's heavy debts, slash its operating costs and restore it to profitability this year. 3/12/03 Accenture Ltd. laid off about 760 employees, or 1% of its work force. The Hamilton, Bermuda, management and technology consulting company made the cuts as "part of an ongoing process to reshape our work force," company spokeswoman Roxanne Taylor said. The layoffs were primarily at U.S. locations and affected midlevel to high-level employees. 3/11/03 Since the height of the dot-com frenzy, nearly 5,000 Internet companies have been acquired or have shut their doors, highlighting the shakeout in the beleaguered sector over the past three years, a new report shows. 3/11/03 Dell Computer has laid off about 140 employees in the company's product-development group. 3/11/03 Intel, the world's largest microprocessor maker, cut 700 more jobs than it had planned to in 2002, according to the company's annual report. 3/11/03 The final page has turned in the bankruptcy case of Egghead.com, an e-commerce pioneer. Egghead's trustee and creditors have approved a plan to distribute the company's remaining $10.5 million in cash from liquidated assets over the next month. The law firm continues to seek further compensation for creditors, mainly through litigation against people who still owe Egghead money.

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