Dot Com News from Week of December 4, 2000

• 12/8/00 - Microcast has let go of most of its employees and filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in a Delaware court.

• 12/8/00 - Because of deteriorating ad rates, YouthStream Media Networks Inc. said it will shut down its Sixdegrees subsidiary at the end of December because the Web site has become too expensive to run. The marketing firm said it will lay off eight of its 320 employees in connection with the sixdegrees shutdown.

• 12/8/00 - Riffage.com, an online label music site, has ceased operations after an unsuccessful hunt for a buyer. About 60 Riffage employees will lose their jobs as a result of the closure.

• 12/8/00 - Flashcom, a financially strapped high-speed Internet access provider, laid off 105 employees, or nearly 30 percent of its work force, and has sold a portion of its customer base in an attempt to continue its operations.

• 12/7/00 - Priceline.com has announced that it has laid off 48 employees and will postpone the introduction of new services. The layoffs represent 11 percent of Priceline's current staff.

• 12/7/00 - NorthPoint Communications, a struggling wholesaler of high-speed Internet connections, has laid off 248 employees, or about 19 percent of its work force.

• 12/7/00 - HotOffice Technologies, which hosts Web-based intranets, told customers that it is ceasing operations by the end of December. Blaming market conditions for its downfall, HotOffice directed customers to rival Intranets.com.

• 12/7/00 - Scient Corp. said it plans to cut about 460 jobs and close its Silicon Valley and Austin, Texas, offices. Scient Corp. builds complete eBusinesses and provides innovation to keep those electronic businesses competitive over time.

• 12/7/00 - Online search company Ask Jeeves issued a revenue warning and announced that its chief executive will step down and end his tenure as a board member.

• 12/6/00 - HarvardNet, a Web hosting services company, is getting out of the high-speed connectivity arena including its digital subscriber line (DSL) service to concentrate on its core businesses. This move puts 280 employees out of work.

• 12/6/00 - Women.com Networks Inc. said today that it would cut 85 jobs - about 25 percent of its workforce - in order to reduce operating expenses in 2001.

• 12/5/00 - Xpedior Inc., a Web design and consulting firm, has closed one Washington-area office and cut staff in another by one-quarter. Xpedior said it intends to close several unprofitable offices and trim nearly 32 percent of its entire staff, or roughly 380 staffers. Xpedior is majority owned by Ashburn, Va.-based Internet carrier PSINet Inc.

• 12/5/00 - Virtual Communities, Inc., a developer of content management software, announced that the Company is suspending operations and evaluating alternatives to maximize the value of its assets. The Company has sold its ethnic communities, virtualjerusalem.com and virtualholyland.com websites, to Bank Hapoalim B.M, the largest bank in Israel.

• 12/5/00 - Red Hat Inc., a major distributor of Linux-based software, is reportedly closing its San Francisco office and two European offices, and laying off about 20 employees.
• 12/5/00 - Internet advertising giant DoubleClick Inc. has taken steps to reorganize by laying off as much as 10 percent of its workforce.

• 12/5/00 - E-tail store Babygear.com posted a bleak note on its Web site notifying customers that it has closed its business and filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection.

• 12/4/00 - KnightRidder.com is laying off 68 people as part of a new restructuring plan to expand its recruitment sales effort and consolidate 32 separate online newspaper operations into one unit.

• 12/4/00 - SportsPrize Entertainment Inc. today announced that it has ceased operations and has shut down www.SportsPrize.com, its Web site featuring sports-based entertainment, information and e-commerce. The company also filed a bankruptcy petition under Chapter 7 of the Federal Bankruptcy Code.

• 12/4/00 - CMGIon, majority-owned by Internet powerhouse CMGI Inc., decided to exit the instant messaging market. The move, which will cut 22 jobs, is part of a reevaluation of CMGIon's assets following the purchase of instant messaging company Tribal Voice in September and AdForce Inc. in October. They will no longer support PowWow.

• 12/4/00 - Etown.com, a San Francisco start-up, which union organizers hoped to count among the first of the dot-coms to unionize, has reportedly cut 28 jobs, including 13 that the union hoped to represent. The cuts include 13 of Etown.com's 36 customer service employees, who this week opted to vote whether to seek representation by the Newspaper Guild and Communications Workers of America.

• 12/4/00 - Look Communications, a Canadian Internet service provider (ISP), said it is cutting costs - and employees - because of lack of investor interest. Look Communications will reduce their staff by 300 out of some 850 staffers.

• 12/4/00 - Gold's Auction, a start-up auction site, has been shut down by its Internet service provider because of outstanding debt. The auction service, which many eBay members saw as an alternative to the auction giant during its outages last year, was unable to find an investor to help it continue its operations.

• 12/4/00 - Greenlight, an online car-sales site backed by Amazon.com, has laid off about 25 percent of its staff.

• 12/4/00 - Petsmart.com has signed a letter of intent to acquire the Pets.com domain name from the now defunct e-tailer. As part of the agreement, Pets.com customers are already being sent to Petsmart.com.

• 12/4/00 - Red Hat, the leading seller of Linux software and services, closed three offices and laid off 20 employees Monday. Red Hat claims to have laid off personnel doing duplicate work.