Dot Com News from Week of October 29, 2001

• 11/2/01 - 180 employees from T. Rowe Price Group or 5% of its U.S. workforce will be without jobs. This will affect primarily its telephone operations and technology departments due to a decline in calling volume by 29% this year. In addition the company will postpone recruiting.
• 11/2/01 - Prudential PLC in London announced plans to form an alliance with Winterthur in Switzerland. This move would see Prudential move its U.K. general insurance business to Winterthur including 1,200 employees. Meanwhile Prudential will restructure its own insurance operations by cutting 2,100 employees by the close of 2003.
• 11/2/01 - StepStone, a European online recruiter, announced it will eliminate nearly 60% of its workforce and cease operations in the United Kingdom. 135 employees in London will be without jobs while the company continues to explore other cost-cutting measures.
• 11/1/01 - Loudeye Technologies Inc., a provider of software and services for handling audio and video on the Internet, said it will consolidate its facilities and reduce its permanent work force by 19%, or 50 employees, resulting in a fourth-quarter charge of $1 million. Loudeye said the layoffs will decrease the work force to 215 employees and help it to save $3 million to $4 million annually.
• 11/1/01 - Boeing will cut another 18,000 jobs by mid-2002, on top of the 12,000 it announced last month, as the aircraft maker accelerates its plan to reduce its work force.
• 11/1/01 - Business software maker BEA Systems said it would cut 264 to 297 jobs, or between 8 percent and 9 percent of its work force, to reduce costs.
• 11/1/01 - Internet infrastructure services provider Genuity, plans to eliminate approximately 24% of its staff after posting a net loss of $300.4 million. The company's 4,832 workers will see 1,157 people go which along with prior cuts, the company expects will save $80 million annually.
• 10/31/01 - InterTrust Technologies Corp., in another sign of trouble in the market for copyright-protection software, said it is cutting close to 40% of its work force. The Santa Clara, Calif., company said it will lay off more than 100 employees, reducing its head count to 180.
• 10/31/01 - Clorox Co. is planning to trim its work force as part of an intensified belt-tightening campaign aimed at restoring growth amid the U.S. economic downturn. The number of employees to be let go has not been announced. Clorox, which sells bleach, household cleaners and other consumer products, employs about 11,000 people world-wide.
• 10/31/01 - Delta Air Lines said it will lay off 2,000 employees -- including 1,700 pilots -- to reduce costs in the face of the sharp downturn in passenger travel and a 16% reduction in its operating capacity. Delta, the nation's third-largest carrier, said more than 11,000 nonunionized workers opted for the voluntary job-cut programs it unveiled last month after the Sept. 11 attacks, allowing it keep the number of layoffs well below those at other major carriers.
• 10/31/01 - Software company Adobe Systems responded to a decline in sales by cutting 150 employees worldwide. The company blamed the decline in sales on the weakened economy and the "overall cutback in spending by corporations" according to CEO Bruce Chizen.
• 10/31/01 - Internation bank, Deutsche Bank, is expected to shed around 10,000 employees or approximately 10% of its workforce. Such a move comes in response to the weakening economy which as seen other banks also shed their employees. The cuts would likely affect the company's retail branch network and fund management unit. The bank and labor unions have reportedly agreed to avoid firing staff by simply not replacing employees who leave or retire.
• 10/31/01 - Online real estate systems developer, Homeseekers announced it will eliminate 34 of its workers or 18% of the total workforce. The company has experienced significant losses along with resignation letters received by its chairman and two members of the board in early October.
• 10/31/01 - French company, Alcatel said it will layoff 10,000 more employees in the next few months in addition to the 3,000 announced in the beginning of this month. This comes after turning in net and operating losses for the company's third quarter. Alcatel blamed the slugging economy in the United States which has in turn affected Europe.
• 10/30/01 - CVS Corp., scaling back its business amid sluggish sales, said it would take a $350 million restructuring charge during the fourth quarter as it eliminates roughly 300 jobs and closes 200 stores, equal to about 5% of its outlets. It announced the cuts as it reported a 22% drop in third-quarter profit.
• 10/30/01 - Publishing software maker Adobe Systems said it would cut 150 jobs, or 5 percent of its work force, and lowered its fourth-quarter and fiscal 2002 revenue and earnings guidance, citing weakening business after the deadly attacks of Sept. 11.
• 10/30/01 - Sun Microsystems began a massive layoff Tuesday, a process that will cut about 3,900 jobs. The layoff is the same size--9 percent of the company's work force--that Sun predicted. The process, which is affecting all divisions across the world should be complete within the next few days. Sun held out against layoffs longer than most high-tech companies battered by the ongoing spending slump.
• 10/30/01 - News channel MSNBC warned its employees it is preparing for "serious" cost cutting. The joint venture between Microsoft and NBC is taking a hard look at nonessential costs. No specific information is available regarding possible layoffs.
• 10/30/01 - Astrolink International LLC, a joint venture by Lockheed Martin and a number of telecommunications and media companies will likely be abandoned. The $3.7 billion project that would provide satellite-delivered Internet services to corporate clients, will see operations ceased on satellites currently under construction and will see scientists either laid off or assigned to new positions.
• 10/29/01 - Music-video pioneer MTV Networks, owner of the popular cable TV stations MTV, VH1 and Nickelodeon, said Monday that it would cut between 8 percent and 9 percent of its work force.
• 10/29/01 - Japanese company, Softbank in an attempt to cut costs, will trim its workforce by 70 people or 66%. This is expected to save 2.7 billion yen in employee costs annually. Softbank, which is a parent company of Yahoo Japan, will also merge 11 of its overseas offices into 3.
• 10/29/01 - Mobile phone network provider Sonera Corp. will lose up to 290 of its employees at two of its subsidiaries. The company based in Finland is taking these measures to reduce costs that are expected to save $54 million annually.
• 10/29/01 - Egghead.com, a retail computer store turned online computer store, has ceased operations of its web site until further notice. The company had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in August in which it operated as a debtor-in-possession in a plan to sell its assets to the company Fry's. It is not known if Fry's will resume the operations or is in any negotiations with Egghead.com.