Dot Com News from Week of February 25, 2002

• 3/1/02 - Velocita Corp. confirmed that it laid off 181 people, or 75% of its staff, as it tries to restructure and save itself in a market where the rest of its competitors are in or close to entering bankruptcy proceedings. The privately held firm, which was founded as PF.Net Communications Inc. in 1998, received more than $1.4 billion from big investors such as Koch Telecom Ventures Inc., AT&T Corp. and Cisco Systems Inc. It also has a contract to construct 8,000 miles of AT&T's new fiber-optic network.
• 3/1/02 - Westell Technologies Inc. plans to cut 17% of its work force and said it will miss fiscal fourth-quarter guidance, blaming continued weakness in the telecommunications sector. The maker of broadband access systems said it will record a fourth-quarter charge of $4.6 million in connection with the elimination of about 200 employees, which includes 89 from the conferencing services business. It's the third series of job cuts for Westell in less than a year.
• 3/1/02 - Circuit City Stores Inc. is buying certain key assets of 800.com Inc., a specialty retailer of consumer electronics, including 800.com's customer database and various other marketing elements. Financial terms of the deal weren't disclosed. The consumer-electronics retailer said traffic coming to 800.com from this point will be redirected to CircuitCity.com, of Richmond, Va. As of Thursday, 800.com suspended retail operations and will no longer take orders from the company's Web site.
• 2/28/02 - Fruit of the Loom, Inc. announced that it would close an additional manufacturing facility located in Fayette, Alabama, affecting 290 employees. Phase down of the facility will begin immediately with a permanent closure completed by April 28, 2002.
• 2/28/02 - Riverstone, a maker of networking equipment for telecommunications service providers and an offspring of Cabletron Systems, said that it would cut staff and miss fourth-quarter estimates. Riverstone said it would cut costs by about 10 percent in the first quarter through a series of measures that include layoffs. The company did not disclose how many employees would be affected.
• 2/28/02 - API Networks, an important player in the history of the storied Alpha processor, is about to close up shop. The company is winding down operations and will go out of business shortly, a victim of slow sales of the Alpha, a chip some thought superior to Intel's famous Pentium but that never caught on with manufacturers.
• 2/28/02 - Hitachi Ltd. announced a new round of cuts along with its largest-ever loss. Hitachi said it now expects a net loss of $3.57 billion for the year ending March 31, compared with net profit of 104.3 billion yen in the previous year. Hitachi said it will reduce the number of its affiliated companies by 300 from around 1,300 and offer an early-retirement program, which it expects will induce 4,000 employees in Japan to leave.
• 2/27/02 - Trailing its competitors in Japan, Internet auctioneer eBay said it will close its Web site there and look for new market share in Asia by acquiring a Taiwanese auction site. EBay plans to shut down the site by the end of March and cut 17 jobs.
• 2/27/02 - Brokerage firm A.G. Edwards Inc. said it would cut 400 jobs, or 2.35 percent of its work force, the first layoffs in its 115-year history. The St. Louis-based company, which has been in business since 1887, said its broker force of around 7,300 will not be included in the reduction. Most of the cuts will be focused in Edwards' headquarters, which employs approximately 4,800 of its staff of 17,000.
• 2/26/02 - Sapient Corp. announced plans to cut another 22% of its work force, and said its financial chief is leaving the company. Sapient, which cut 720 jobs last March, said it would lay off 415 consultants, or 22% of its professional staff. The Web consulting company will also cut 130 administrative positions, or 24% of its administrative workers. After the layoffs it will employ about 1,900 people overall.
• 2/25/02 - Williams Communications Group Inc., reversing course, said it may file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection to reorganize its $5.16 billion debt. After trying to renegotiate its debt with lenders, it warned that its restructuring could result in substantial shareholder dilution. Williams Communications said it plans to cut "controllable" costs by 25%, which will include work-force reductions. It declined to say how many of its 4,000 employees would lose their jobs.