Dot Com News from Week of September 24, 2001

• 9/28/01 - Digi International, Inc., the leader in Connectware, today announced an immediate workforce reduction of thirteen percent or 61 employees.
• 9/28/01 - Office equipment and services company Ikon, will cut 2,600 employees or about 6.5% of its entire workforce as they announces they would miss Wall St. earnings estimates for its fiscal fourth quarter. The company also will close some of its businesses among other cost cutting measures in order to save $50 million a year.
• 9/28/01 - TEK DigiTel, which delivers integrated Customer Premise Equipment communications solutions optimized for use in SOHO, small- and medium-sized businesses, announced that it has reduced its current staffing levels by 30%. The reduction, which was made official on September 14, 2001, brings the current operating staff figure to 15 including senior management. The reductions came at the end of a four-month period where all employees took a reduction in salary. The layoffs where mostly to administrative positions and include one hardware engineer.
• 9/28/01 - Amtel Corp. will lay off 2,500 employees or approximately 26% of its workforce. This is in a effort to consolidate its United States and European manufacturing operations due to a lower semiconductor demand.
• 9/28/01 - Madison Avenue is getting prepared to lay off more workers as advertising agencies figure out the damage to their business in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks. Many companies' advertising dollars are on hold due to the attacks.
• 9/28/01 - Fifteen employees were laid off from Contentville introduced by Brill Media Holdings. According to founder Steven Brill, "my idea for Contentville just didn't work." He also blamed the weak economy and failure of dot-coms.
• 9/28/01 - Today, Excite@Home, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The company which has been seen rounds of layoffs, plans to sell its Broadband Internet-access assets and related services to AT&T for $307 million. Meanwhile the company will maintain the operation of its high-speed cable Internet-access services and additional related services until it is sold.
• 9/28/01 - Broadband telecommunications provider Net2000, will be shedding 300 employees from its payroll or about 30% ot its workforce. This along with its decision to leave the Philadelphia market is in an effort to lower operating expenses.
• 9/27/01 - Amid a general slowdown in air travel and a new partnership with Amazon.com, Web travel agency Hotwire.com laid off about 10 percent of its staff Tuesday. The layoffs are a result of the travel slowdown that has hit the entire airline industry. The company would not say exactly how many workers were laid off, but sources at the company said there were about 170 employees before the layoffs.
• 9/27/01 - Motley Fool Inc., publisher of a popular, irreverent stock-chat Web site, will lay off more than half of its remaining employees, according to a person familiar with the situation. Motley Fool, which currently employs about 140 workers, told employees it will be laying off between 80 and 90 people over the next 60 days. It marks the company's third round of layoffs this year.
• 9/27/01 - Clarent Corp., which makes which makes Internet-based telephone systems to transmit voice and data, said it is laying off 50% of its work force, or 350 employees, and slashed its third-quarter revenue estimates after accounting irregularities and other problems at the company.
• 9/26/01 - The United States' third largest airline carrier, Delta Air Lines will eliminate 13,000 positions via voluntary programs and layoffs as the airline industry in whole continues to suffer low ridership.
• 9/26/01 - Exodus Communications, a provider of web hosting, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. According to CEO William Krause, this will allow Exodus to keep daily operations and services to consumers continuous without interruption.
• 9/26/01 - Mahindra-British Telecom, a software firm in India, has plans to eliminate 300 employees or approximately 10% of its entire workforce. Meanwhile the company put its plans for an initial public offering on hold due to weakening market conditions.
• 9/26/01 - About.com has reduced its headcount by 60 people and the number of site guides by 300. This is in an effort to bring its new media business "into the black" in 2002.
• 9/25/01 - Shares of Exodus Communications Inc. lost more than two-thirds of their value today as sources close to the company said a bankruptcy filing appeared imminent and that such a deal could leave Exodus stockholders empty handed.
• 9/25/01 - Hoover's, Inc., a leading provider of online business information and operator of Hoover's Online, today announced plans to sharpen its focus, streamline its product offering, reduce its cost structure, shift the responsibilities of several key management positions, and will reduce its workforce by 20 percent as part of a plan to reach profitability.
• 9/25/01 - High-speed Internet access provider ExciteAtHome said it will close MatchLogic, its interactive marketing services subsidiary. The shutdown of MatchLogic, is expected to be complete by the end of the year, the company said. ExciteAtHome said it would lay off approximately 500 workers over the next three months in a further effort to "reduce the company's focus on online media and narrowband business." In addition, the company said it would make unspecified changes to its Excite.com portal in an effort to attract more users.
• 9/25/01 - Excelon, which makes database management software, said that it will lay off 160 employees, consolidate facilities, and take a charge in the third quarter as part of a restructuring plan. It said the actions were related to integration of the operations of C-bridge Internet Solutions, which Excelon acquired last week.
• 9/25/01 - U.S. computer maker Gateway said that the next big wave of layoffs will come in a couple of weeks. Gateway expects to have the U.K and Ireland shut down by the end of the year as the company withdraws from the global market to focus on its home market. Gateway has about 900 employees in Ireland and about 185 in the U.K.
• 9/25/01 - Two Canadian providers of technology for wireless communications said they were cutting their workforces by nearly half in separate announcements. WaveRider Communications, a maker of wireless technology for "last-mile" Internet access, said it was conserving cash by cutting 50 percent of some 112 jobs in Canada and Australia and temporarily cutting salaries for several remaining executives. Meanwhile, Cell-Loc, a Calgary, Alberta, company that provides wireless location technology for the cellular networks, said it was cutting 44 percent of its full-time staff, reducing its workforce to about 36 employees.
• 9/25/01 - UpsideToday has declared its site will return in a reduced form although it has suspended operations at its online division as reported yesterday.
• 9/25/01 - American Airlines asked its management and unionized workers to take voluntary pay cuts to help stabilize the nation's largest airline in the wake of terrorist attacks that have crippled travel.
• 9/25/01 - Communications services company Talk America Holdings Inc. said on it had cut 550 jobs, or 27 percent of its staff, in the third quarter, as it doubled the number of orders it filled in 30 days or less. The company said that the increased productivity, combined with investments and "aggressive management of its business plan" led to the cuts.
• 9/25/01 - Chip maker AMD plans to close two facilities in Austin, Texas, as part of a restructuring that will eliminate about 2,300 jobs, or 15% of its work force.
• 9/25/01 - Internet media and services company AOL Latin America said it would chop 7.6 percent off its regional workforce, bracing for a faster-than-expected slowdown in regional economic growth in the wake of the recent attacks on U.S. soil. AOL Latin America, backed by Internet and media giant AOL Time Warner Inc. and Venezuela's Cisneros Group, plans to lay off 130 workers in Mexico, Brazil and Argentina out of a workforce of 1,700, cutting operating costs.
• 9/25/01 - OrbImage, which just days ago launched a critical rocket that failed and is believed to have fallen into the Indian Ocean, said it will file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy by the middle of December. Under bankruptcy protection, the company will focus on strengthening its financial condition and arrange for additional funding.
• 9/24/01 - Quietly and gradually, IBM Global Services has trimmed its worldwide workforce by as many as 10,000 in the past several months, according to company sources. Those layoffs follow a sharp decline in demand for IBM's consulting services and a concomitant decline in its consultant utilization rate.
• 9/24/01 - SportsVoices.com L.L.C., the Nation's leading independent Major League and NCAA Sports Audio Interview company, today announced that it is ceasing activities effective immediately, and that its digital archive of over 40,000 Sports Interviews would be sold. Given the current economic and new business funding climate, the Board determined this to be the only prudent course of action at this time.
• 9/24/01 - Navigant International Inc., citing the slowdown in travel since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, said it will reduce its work force by 20% and slash employee compensation. The Houston travel concern said it will reduce salaries of executives and associates by 12% and 5% respectively. The company said it implemented the cost-cutting measures to offset a significant drop in travel. Navigant said when travel levels resume, it expects to restore staffing and compensation.
• 9/24/01 - Hyperfeed Technologies Inc., a provider of real-time securities and financial data, said it would cut 30 percent of its work force as it shifts focus to the more profitable institutional market and away from the higher-cost consumer market. The Chicago-based company said that the cuts were due to the sharp decline in the economy and lower demand for its products from individual investors. The company said the total number of job losses would be fewer than 50.
• 9/24/01 - American Management Systems Inc., the troubled Fairfax, Va.-based government IT contractor, today warned that it expects lower revenue and earnings for the current third quarter and that it plans to lay off 5 percent of its workforce.
• 9/24/01 - UpsideToday at www.upside.com, a technology news site announced it will cease operations due to insufficient funding. Upside magazine is expected to continue to be published on a monthly basis.
• 9/24/01 - Peer-to-peer file sharing software company, Hotline Connect has reportedly laid off most of its staff. Particularly well known to the Macintosh community, Hotline Connect was founded in 1997 and millions of copies of its client-side software have been downloaded on both PC and Macintosh platforms. CEO Jack Kay has not yet confirmed or denied the layoffs occurred.