With so much in the news about job cuts and closures of well-known dot com companies, we at SearchtheWeb.com thought we would track these companies and Internet related sites and provide you with updated short news announcements on their status.

Dot Com News from Week of February 3, 2003

2/7/03 PortalPlayer, whose chip powers Apple Computer's iPod MP3 device, cut an undisclosed number of jobs last month. PortalPlayer Vice President Michael Maia confirmed that layoffs took place a couple of weeks ago, but would not say how many jobs were cut. 2/7/03 PalmSource, the operating system subsidiary of handheld company Palm, cut 18 percent of its work force this week. The Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company laid off employees from all divisions within the company. 2/7/03 United Parcel Service Inc. plans to furlough as many as 100 pilots in the latest sign that the world's largest package-delivery company still is struggling to overcome a stubborn slump in shipment volume. The coming furloughs, affecting up to 4% of its 2,515 pilots, are the first by UPS since it launched its own airline in 1988. 2/4/03 Spanish Internet service provider Terra Lycos said it will cut 22 percent of its U.S.-based staff in an effort to reduce "functional redundancies" in its worldwide operations. The layoffs will affect 147 positions out of 650 in its offices in Waltham, Mass., Mountain View, Calif., San Francisco, Miami and New York. The cutbacks were the result of a shift in the company's business operations to a more global, rather than regional, focus. 2/4/03 Bank of America will slash about 1,000 jobs in technology and operations during the first quarter. The move follows the elimination of 900 jobs late last year. 2/4/03 Circuit City dismissed most of its 3,900 commissioned sales staff and said it would cut an additional 200 jobs at 10 repair centers in the next few months as it closes the centers. It will hire 2,100 hourly workers to replace the commissioned staff. The company said it isn't offering hourly positions to former commissioned sales staff. In all, Circuit City will cut 2,000 jobs, or 4.8% of its 42,000 full- and part-time staffers. 2/4/03 When it comes to online auctions of fine art, there are more browsers than buyers. Having learned that the hard way, Sotheby's Holdings Inc. is pulling the plug on Sothebys.com (sothebys.ebay.com), its unprofitable joint online-auction venture with eBay Inc. 2/4/03 American Airlines asked its labor unions to agree to permanently slash pay and benefits and change work rules to lower costs by 25% "as a last resort" to help the world's largest airline recover financially. 2/3/03 WorldCom is cutting an additional 5,000 jobs in the latest round of cost cuts as the long-distance company tries to emerge from bankruptcy under new CEO Michael Capellas. 2/3/03 Key3Media filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The company, which operates the giant Comdex trade show, has been hit hard by the technology slump. 2/3/03 AVCOM, considered one of the Nation's leading Valued Added Resellers of enterprise-class computers, security, storage and networking solutions is ceasing operations. Depressed demand for high-end solutions, the over-distribution of IT products and services, falling margins and the vendor's failure to value and reward the high investments required to be a successful VAR -- all influenced AVCOM's decision.

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