Dot Com News from Week of November 13, 2000

• 11/17/00 - ZipLink, Inc., a wholesale Internet connectivity provider, announced that the company plans to suspend its operations effective November 17, 2000. In addition, the company announced the lay off of substantially all of its employees except those necessary to wind down operations.

• 11/18/00 - AllAdvantage, a dot com company that offered cash to people who visited its Web site, laid off about 35 percent of its staff in an effort to cut costs and change strategies. Nearly 150 employees will be laid off effective immediately, while 230 staffers will remain at the company. The cutbacks are meant to reduce costs.

• 11/16/00 - Online audio distributor Audiohighway.com announced that 21 of its 30 employees will be let go to reduce expenses as part of its plan to find new funding and partnerships.

• 11/16/00 - Online retail cosmetics company, BeautyJungle.com Inc., ceased operations, citing a lack of financing to help the company turn a profit. The closure affects both the namesake e-retail site and the B2B e-market Beautywall.com due to a lack of adequate capital funding. The company will lay off most of its 30 employees, keeping a minimal staff to ensure an orderly liquidation of assets.

• 11/16/00 - Online encyclopedia Britannica.com says it's laying off 75 people, or 23 percent of the US workforce. Editorial, product development, marketing, e-commerce and technology positions were cut, the company said.

• 11/16/00 - TheStreet.com plans to wind down its joint venture with the New York Times, cut 20% of its U.S. work force and close its U.K. operations. In an effort to reach profitability, in the U.S., TheStreet.com has reduced its work force by 20%, or about 40 full-time employees. The company also plans to shut down its U.K. unit, TheStreet.co.uk, which it said was going to run out of money by Dec. 31. All 64 jobs were eliminated in the U.K.
• 11/16/00 - American Greetings Corp., the world's largest publicly traded greeting card company, slashed its earnings outlook, cut the dividend in half, and said it will restructure the business because of a tougher greeting card market.

• Internet consultant MarchFirst disclosed plans to lay off 1,000 "underutilized" consultants using "outdated technologies" to save $100 million annually.

• 11/15/00 - The Garden.com said that it intends to "phase down" its consumer business and begin liquidating its assets. The company also announced that it will begin laying off its staff. The shutdown follows the company's search for a buyer. In September, the company slashed its work force by about 40 percent.

• 11/15/00 - Voter.com trimmed its staff by more than 10 percent as part of a corporate restructuring. Earlier this month, Politics.com put its domain name up for auction. In May, the creators of BetterVote.com were forced to sell their foundering Web site. Before the job cuts, Voter.com employed 105 people.

• 11/14/00 - Scour, Inc., a leading Internet search destination for digital entertainment, announced today it will voluntarily shut down the Scour Exchange community within 48 hours to facilitate a resolution of pending litigation and a sale of its assets in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court.

• 11/14/00 - Hispanic portal Quepasa.com has cut two-thirds of its workforce and continues to look for a buyer. Quepasa pink-slipped 58 employees, lowering its staff to 20.

• 11/13/00 - Online grocery delivery service Streamline.com Inc. has begun winding down operations and will shut down on Nov. 22, citing the same deficiencies that led to so many other recent dot-com bow-outs - no money, no investors, no buyers.

• 11/13/00 - CMGI chief executive David Wetherell said that the company will sell or shut down its online entertainment service, iCast, because of heavy capital costs and an unclear date for profitability. The company would seek buyers for iCast as it winds down its operations. CMGI will close the business by the end of January if they do not find a buyer.

• 11/13/00 - CMGI, whose operations and investments span 70 Internet companies, said it plans to sell its free Internet access business 1stUp.com in order to obtain profitablity by the end of its 2001 fiscal year. The free Internet access service is supported by advertising revenue, an income stream that was trickling.