Dot Com News from Week of July 9, 2001

• 7/13/01 - Fidelity Investments is cutting 160 jobs in its brokers services group. Fidelity spokeswoman Anne Crowley said in-house recruiters will work with all of the laid-off workers in an effort to find positions for them elsewhere in the company.
• 7/13/01 - CoreExpress Inc., which vowed to revolutionize the Web with its high-speed Internet service, said that it's laying off 75 percent of its employees. The company is cutting 285 of its 385 jobs.
• 7/13/01 - Compositech Ltd., a developer of high tech laminates for the printed circuit board industry, reported that on July 11, 2001, the Company filed a voluntary Chapter 11 petition in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of New York. The Company ceased its manufacturing operations at the end of 1999 and since then has been engaged in a program to license its technology.
• 7/13/01 - Vectrix Business Solutions, Inc., a provider of graphics, financial transaction processing and application services, filed for Chapter 11 protection with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the Northern District of Texas. According to published reports, the Company stated that it has approximately $3 million in cash to fund its near-term operations.
• 7/12/01 - Forrester Research said it would cut 111 jobs, or about 15 percent of its global work force, amid slowing demand for its technology research, analysis and consulting services. The technology research firm, based here, said in a statement it would take a charge in the third quarter of between $3 million and $4 million for the job cuts, the first in the company's 18-year history. Forrester said it plans to reorganize its sales force.
• 7/12/01 - Online grocery delivery service HomeRuns.com said it "has discontinued its online grocery business" and "has suspended operations in Boston and Washington, D.C., effective immediately." n a press statement released about an hour after the stock markets closed Thursday, HomeRuns.com said its "efforts to raise the additional capital necessary to continue to run the business have been unsuccessful.
• 7/12/01 - VoiceFlash Networks, Inc. filed for Chapter 11 protection with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the Central District of California. Utilizing Bluetooth-equipped cell phones, VoiceFlash technology allows credit card transactions via proprietary networking protocols that allow retail merchants total security at the point-of-sale.
• 7/12/01 - MusicMatch, which makes programs for creating and organizing digital music, says it has laid off 40 employees and four contractors as a result of the economic climate. A MusicMatch representative said the company decided to eliminate employees who had nonessential positions or whose responsibilities could be assumed by the remaining 114 employees.
• 7/12/01 - Lenox Healthcare, Inc. filed for Chapter 11 protection with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the District of Delaware. This is the Company's second Chapter 11 filing. Chairman H. Jeffrey Schwartz reportedly commented that the board concluded that the Company can not continue as a going-concern.
• 7/12/01 - Lucent Technologies plans a third round of job cuts this year, chief executive Henry Schacht told employees as the struggling telecommunications equipment maker disclosed that more than 8,500 workers had accepted an early retirement offer.
• 7/12/01 - Motorola Inc. said it will 4,000 more jobs as part of its cost-cutting overhaul and warned that its money-losing streak will extend to a third straight quarter.
• 7/12/01 - Crossroads Systems, a provider of connectivity for storage networking systems, said it will chop 20 staffers, about 10 percent of its workforce. The company said the job reductions will come through realignment and consolidation of its current organization and that no software or hardware engineering positions are involved.
• 7/11/01 - International Business Machines Corp., in another quiet round of cuts this summer, sent out layoff notices recently to an estimated 1,000 workers this week. Notices sent this week to employees in everything from sales to services and manufacturing identified the affected as "selected for permanent layoff" as part of a broad "skills resources transition" at IBM.
• 7/11/01 - In what could be the final nail in the coffin for Napster, a federal judge ordered the song-swap service not to resume operations until it can prove that it is not violating music industry copyrights.
• 7/11/01 - Zany Brainy, the upscale toy retailer with 187 stores across the country, has agreed to be sold for $115 million to Waterton Management, a Los Angeles investment firm, if a federal bankruptcy court approves. Zany Brainy filed for protection from creditors under Chapter 11 of the federal bankruptcy laws May 15 in Wilmington, Del., listing $201 million in assets and $131 million in liabilities.
• 7/11/01 - GuideComm Systems Inc., a software and consulting firm that helps telecommunications companies maximize revenue, laid off a "substantial" number of employees last week, a senior company executive confirmed. GuideComm Chief Operating Officer and co-founder A.J. Germek refused to provide details of the staff reduction or the remaining workforce. He emphasized in an interview that the company has enough workers to staff its projects.
• 7/11/01 - Carlson Cos. plans to cut about 360 jobs - less than one percent of its work force - in reaction to a continued slowdown in the business travel and technology sectors. The cuts will come in two of the company's five divisions - Carlson Wagonlit Travel and Carlson Shared Services, which provides internal technology and business services to other divisions of Carlson.
• 7/11/01 - Personal digital assistant (PDA) maker Psion says it will lay off 250 workers as it curtails development of new consumer PDAs and ditches plans for a Bluetooth range of products so it can focus on the business market. The changes effectively mean the end of the line for Psion PDAs, which date back to the 1980s. The firm's just-completed strategic review will put around 250 staffers out of work. The group will take a 29 million pounds ($41 million) charge in the current year.
• 7/11/01 - Gemplus, the world's biggest maker of smart cards, will cut around 450 jobs from its global work force of 7,800 over the next few months. Aside from the 200 previously announced job losses from the closure of a plant in Germany, the remaining 250 layoffs--a mixture of forced and voluntary cuts--will come largely in the United States.
• 7/10/01 - Compaq said second-quarter earnings will trail already lowered forecasts, citing sales that fell below expectations. The computer maker will cut another 4,000 jobs and take a $490 million charge.
• 7/10/01 - American Power Conversion Corp. wants to cut another 700 jobs, or about 9.5 percent of its worldwide work force, in an effort to make the technology company more competitive.
• 7/10/01 - Getty Images said it expects second-quarter sales of $115 million, below estimates. The online visual-content provider plans to lay off about 300 employees.
• 7/10/01 - Teledyne Technologies Inc., an electronics-systems supplier, said it will record a larger-than-expected second quarter charge and said it will cut 14% of its work force by the end of 2001. Teledyne eliminated 207 jobs in the second quarter, bringing its total job cuts through the second quarter to 507 positions, or about 9% of the company's work force.
• 7/10/01 - Polaroid Corp., under pressure from its creditors, is discussing a debt-restructuring plan with its bankers and is giving serious consideration to a voluntary filing for bankruptcy-court protection.
• 7/10/01 - Retailer Sears, Roebuck & Co. said it will abandon its cosmetics and skin-care businesses, blindsiding Avon Products Inc., its partner in a much-trumpeted venture to sell a new line of makeup in 125 Sears stores. Last year, in September, Avon said it would expand into retail stores for the first time in its 116-year history with a new product line, called beComing. Avon was planning to sell the line in the Sears and Penney stores in high-traffic locations that would be called "Avon Centers".
• 7/9/01 - Internet talk-radio site eYada.com Inc. ceased operations Monday, unable to survive the prolonged drought in online advertising. EYada, which launched in 1999, broadcast streaming-audio talk shows hosted by personalities including gossip columnists from the New York Post and New York Daily News. The company had 51 people remaining, including talk-show hosts, all of whom will be laid off.
• 7/9/01 - Corning, the world's largest fiber-optic cable maker, said it would cut 1,000 jobs, close three plants, and take second-quarter charges totaling about $5.1 billion because of the continued slowdown in the telecommunications sector.
• 7/9/01 - Conexant Systems Inc. plans additional restructuring initiatives that include another round of layoffs and temporarily closing some plants. The reduction in work force will occur over the next 30 days and will affect about 420 full-time employees and 30 contractors world-wide, for a total reduction of about 6%. Combined with reductions announced in March, Conexant is cutting about 25% of its staff.
• 7/9/01 - Comcast made an unsolicited offer to buy AT&T Broadband, the telecommunications giant's cable business, for $44.5 billion of stock plus the assumption of $13.5 billion in debt.
• 7/9/01 - French telecommunications equipment maker Alcatel said it would cut an additional 2,500 jobs in the United States, or 16 percent of its work force here, and close a manufacturing facility in Raleigh, N.C., in an effort to cut costs during the economic slowdown.
• 7/9/01 - Webvan ceased operations and said that it plans to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The online grocer terminated 2,000 employees. The company said it has no plans to resume operations and it will pursue an orderly wind down of its operations and sale of its assets and business.