Dot Com News from Week of October 22, 2001

• 10/26/01 - Broadband services provider Level 3 announced it will chop away about 17% of its 4,500 workforce or 750 positions through layoffs and attrition. The company posted a larger third quarter loss than expected.
• 10/26/01 - Food unit Kraft announced it will cut 1,000 jobs of its 117,000 strong workforce as it combines with Nabisco Holdings Corp. Kraft which is owned by Philip Morris, has found combining forces with Nabisco will work with fewer positions.
• 10/25/01 - Online real estate services company Homestore.com said that it will reorganize its business into two operating groups and cut up to 20 percent of its work force as it tries to reduce costs. The company said it expects to take a fourth-quarter charge on the cost reduction plan, which includes releasing up to 700 of its employees.
• 10/25/01 - Contract manufacturer Flextronics International reported fiscal second-quarter earnings in line with expectations and said it is cutting 10,000 jobs, or 15 percent of its work force. The company attributed the layoffs to needed cost-cutting.
• 10/25/01 - Cox Interactive Media said it will dismantle two of its major-market Web sites while trimming its staff of 450 employees by roughly 15 percent. Cox Interactive will cut roughly 70 employees from its payroll. Cox Interactive is a division of Cox Enterprises Inc., an Atlanta-based company with holdings in broadband cable, newspapers, television and radio stations, and Web sites.
• 10/25/01 - Belgian telecommunications company, Belgacom, will cut 3,000 to 4,000 workers or nearly 20% of its entire workforce. Between 2,500 to 3,000 other workers will be retrained for new positions within the company. The cuts will not affect employees at its subsidiaries Proximus and Skynet Internet.
• 10/25/01 - Goodrich seeks to cut 2,400 aerospace and corporate positions due to the lack of air travel due to the September 11 attacks. Along with the cuts, the company will begin consolidation of its aerospace operations and cease operations at 16 of its plants.
• 10/25/01 - KPN will eliminate 4,800 employees or just over 10% of its workforce in order to successfully battle its $18.25 billion in debt. The company also has instituted a hiring freeze.
• 10/24/01 - Napster Inc. is laying off 15% of its work force, or 16 people, to save costs and adapt to changes in its music-sharing service. The closely held San Mateo, Calif., company said the cuts leave its work force at 88 employees.
• 10/24/01 - Bitstream Inc. announced that it has proactively adopted certain restructuring initiatives to help accelerate the date by which the company can achieve profitability. These initiatives include a voluntary reduction in executive salaries, a reduction in outside consulting and other operational expenses, and a reduction of its workforce by approximately 20% effective October 31, 2001.
• 10/24/01 - Time Warner Telecom, a provider of broadband Internet and voice services to metropolitan businesses, said it would ax 250 jobs primarily in Vancouver, Wash. A workforce of 100 will remain in the area after the job cuts.
• 10/24/01 - PurchasePro.com said it laid off half its staff, cut its managers' salaries by more than half and shuttered the majority of its office facilities. The company, which purports to save businesses money by linking them with suppliers over the Web, said it cut 125 members of its staff, reducing its total work force to 125.
• 10/24/01 - Film and imaging company, Eastman Kodak will cut between 3,500 and 4,000 workers due to weakened third quarter profit. The company blamed the lame economy and said sales were down by as much as 7%.
• 10/24/01 - Department store retailer Sears announced it will eliminate approximately 4,900 employees by 2003 in response to a 5.8% drop in net income for the third quarter. Approximately 3,600 cuts will come from inside Sears stores and its field organization. 1,300 cuts will come from its Illinois headquarters.
• 10/24/01 - Fujitsu, a Japanese electronics company, announced it will cut 4,500 positions by the end of March 2002. Approximately 88% of the employees cut will have come from plants outside of Japan. This cost-cutting measure comes on top of 16,400 job cuts announced in August.
• 10/23/01 - Internet and wireless services provider InfoSpace Inc. posted a quarterly loss in line with Wall Street expectations, compared with a profit a year earlier, and said it would cut about 200 jobs.
• 10/23/01 - Long-distance telephone and cable-television giant AT&T said third-quarter profits fell sharply amid stiff competition and weak prices in the long-distance telephone market. Meanwhile, the Communications Workers of America union said AT&T plans to shed 2,400 jobs, or less than 2 percent of its work force, in its latest round of cost cutting.
• 10/23/01 - Telecommunications equipment maker ADC Telecommunications said that it will cut up to 150 senior managers and its chief operating officer position in a bid to streamline the company and speed decision-making following broader cuts announced in August.
• 10/23/01 - Net2000 Communications, a provider of broadband voice and data telecommunications services, said it has eliminated 400 jobs, or 60% of its work force, and said it will focus on its four original markets: Washington, D.C.; Baltimore; Richmond and Virginia Beach. The company said the moves are aimed at saving money and streamlining operations in the face of weak market conditions preserving capital.

• 10/23/01 - In a measure to achieve profitability, game-maker Electronic Arts will let 250 employees go or approximately 33% of the staff. The company will now direct its attention to projects that have the greatest chance of generating revenue such as its Motor City Online auto racing game and subscription-based games.
• 10/23/01 - In an attempt to save some jobs and preserve insurance and retirement benefits for employees, Walt Disney World is asking 7,400 full-time workers to cut their work week to 32 hours. Work schedules for nearly 40,000 workers were already trimmed in response to the attacks on America that slaughtered the airline and tourism industries.
• 10/23/01 - AKQA Inc. a Web marketing company has laid off more than 50% of its staff in Washington, D.C. Blaming a decline in the industry, 31 of the 58 employees there were told to leave. AKQA launched only this summer as a four-way merger between Magnet Interactive, Citron Haligman Bedecarre, AdInc and AKQA.
• 10/22/01 - Emerson Electric in addition to cuts made earlier this year, will cut an extra 1,200 people or 3% of its current total workforce. Also, the company will cease operations in about 20 of its 350 plants. The company blamed the terrorist attacks of September 11 for a decline in business.
• 10/22/01 - Seeing its net income fall 31% during the third quarter, communications firm SBC Communications will reportedly toss out "several thousand" employees and reduce its capital spending by 20%. According to a spokesperson for SBC, the company has approximately 216,000 employees.
• 10/22/01 - Manufacturer of printers, Lexmark will cut approximately 1,600 employees or 12% of its total workforce. This is in response to the weakening economy and a price war with its biggest competition, Hewlett Packard.
• 10/22/01 - Launched only in January of 2001, the joint venture between VNU and Randstad, NewMonday.com will reportedly shut down. The web site operation will then integrate into VNU. NewMonday.com, which employs 140 people will see 40 transfer to VNU and 100 with an undetermined fate.
• 10/22/01 - Military sites operated by the U.S. Department of Defense were defaced by a group of Pakistani hackers known as GForce Pakistan. The home pages of web sites accessible at www.dtepi.mil, enduringfreedom.dtepi.mil and nasa.dtepi.mil, all featured a text message about terrorism and Islam and several photographs depicting Muslim children murdered by Israeli soldiers.