Dot Com News from Week of April 2, 2001

• 4/6/01 - Open Market, a developer of e-business applications, said it would lay off 25 percent of its staff.
• 4/6/01 - iwix.net, the internet specialty insurance marketplace, announced it will close effective April 30th, 2001 due to its inability to secure additional funding. The exit plan, which was approved by its Board of Directors on March 26th, has been communicated in detail to its carrier/MGA partners and its broker/agent members. Although iwix.net is not accepting new members or new risks, current members and carrier/MGA partners can continue to use iwix.net until April 30th so they may conclude transactions in process.
• 4/6/01 - For the second time in roughly one month, Egghead.com is slashing its workforce. Egghead.com said Friday that 178 jobs, or 29 percent, of its workforce will be eliminated. On March 5, the online software seller chopped 12 percent of its staff. The company said the cuts are an effort to "right-size" the business and make sure Egghead.com reaches profitability by the end of the year.
• 4/5/01 - Keynote Systems, which measures Internet performance, said it would lay off 13 percent of its staff, about 36 people, in an effort to reduce costs.
• 4/5/01 - Winstar is halting expansion of its telecom network for the rest of this year and plans to cut 44% of its work force, or 2,000 jobs. The company's stock has plummeted in recent weeks.
• 4/5/01 - Pearson Group PLC announced that it will eliminate about 40 jobs in its online divisions of the Financial Times, which include FT.com. The jobs being cut represent about 11.4 percent of the roughly 350 employees that FT Group devoted primarily to the company's online businesses, which also include the FT Careerpoint jobs site and the FT Your Money personal finance site. FT Group also publishes the print version of the Financial Times.
• 4/4/01 - Burst.com has cut their overall headcount by 75%, reducing its staff to five. Burst.com said the moves are part of the company's decision to abandon its software marketing and media-hosting lines of business in favor of a patent licensing strategy.
• 4/4/01 - Because several key customers delayed technology purchases during the quarter because of the economy, Selectica, a software company, said it was reviewing its cost structure and plans to cut total employee-related expenses by about 10% through headcount reductions and salary freezes.
• 4/4/01 - Financial news Web site TheStreet.com Inc. said it laid off another 20% of its staff, the second round of job cuts to hit the company in recent months. The 40 layouts were across-the-board; the company will be left with 150 employees.
• 4/4/01 - Akamai Technologies Inc., which provides Internet content delivery and streaming services, said first-quarter revenue will fall short of expectations because of the continued dot-com meltdown and said it would lay off 14% of its work force. Akamai's total work force is about 1,300; approximately 182 employees would be laid off.
• 4/3/01 - PSINet Inc. warned that because of cash flow problems, it will likely file for protection under Chapter 11 of the federal bankruptcy code and may be delisted from the Nasdaq Stock Market.
• 4/3/01 - ComputerWare, one of the largest Apple dealers in the nation, has gone out of business, according to a tape recording on its corporate telephone system.
• 4/3/01 - Software maker MicroStrategy Inc. warned it will post a wider-than-expected first-quarter loss and said it will cut about 600 jobs as part of a sweeping restructuring aimed at becoming profitable by the end of the year.
• 4/3/01 - Voice portal Tellme Networks cuts close to 10 percent of its staff, a total of 29 workers, as part of a reorganization plan to focus on business and telecommunications carrier customers rather than consumers.
• 4/3/01 - French telecom giant Alcatel said it will cut about 1,100 US employees in an effort to remain competitive in the face of the US economic slowdown. Also blaming reduced customer spending, the company said that the total number represents about 5 percent of its US workforce and will include 800 full-time employees. Those employees affected will receive a "severance package" and "outplacement services."
• 4/3/01 - Ingram Micro Inc., a distributor of computers and other goods, said it will lay off 470 employees and close product-configuration facilities in Fullerton, Calif., and Columbus, Ohio. The job cuts amount to roughly 3% of Ingram's 16,500 world-wide employees, and reflect both internal streamlining and slackening demand.
• 4/2/01 - BroadVision, an e-business software developer, warned that it will post a loss in its first quarter, miss analysts' sales estimates by at least $45 million and lay off 15 percent of its work force.
• 4/2/01 - Alcatel, a French communications equipment company, will reduce its U.S. work force by about 5 percent, or 1,100 workers, 800 of which were full time. The company said it needed to manage its costs to remain competitive in the United States.
• 4/2/01 - Internet.com, a provider of news and information for Internet industry professionals, is letting go 15% of its work force, citing various job redundancies and the softening advertising market.
• 4/2/01 - Wine.com Inc., an Internet wine retailer, said it would lay off two-thirds of its staff as part of a plan to "streamline" its business. The closely held company, one of the oldest online retailers, said 160 out of its 245 employees were laid off as of today.
• 4/2/01 - Struggling paging company Metrocall and its rival WebLink Wireless are both going to enter bankruptcy and will then merge to form a new company consisting of about 5,000 employees.
• 4/2/01 - MarchFirst Inc., an Internet-consulting company, said it plans to cut 1,700 jobs, or 30% of its work force, and said it won an extension on a $53 million debt payment that had been due this month. The company said it is closing its Australian operations and is actively pursuing the sale of other business units.
• 4/2/01 - Compaq Computer Corp. will cut 700 jobs in Scotland as it tries to streamline production in response to the slowing European personal-computer market.
• 4/2/01 - Redback Networks Inc., a maker of networking hardware, warned of missing quarterly estimates and said it would lay off 150 people, or 12% of its staff.
• 4/2/01 - Inktomi Corp., which makes software to speed the delivery of data over computer networks and search the Web for information, warned that it will report much lower revenue and a much wider loss than expected for its fiscal second quarter. The company also said it would reduce its work force by 25%, or 250 employees.
• 4/2/01 - i2 Technologies Inc., a business software company, said that first-quarter earnings will fall short of Wall Street estimates, and that it plans to cut about 610 jobs, or about 10% of its work force. Unfortunately, the company had just recently added 550 employees during the first quarter in anticipation that orders would continue to grow sharply, as they did last year. But customers never materialized.
• 4/2/01 - Ariba Inc., a B-to-B Internet company, said it is facing a massive earnings shortfall and steep layoffs on account of economic uncertainties. The company said it was laying off 700 workers, or a third of its staff, to ensure its business plans reflect today's economic realities. The company also said it was calling off the $2.4 billion purchase of Agile Software Inc. it had announced in January.