Dot Com News from Week of December 31, 2001

• 1/4/02 - Service Merchandise Co., a 42-year-old home-and-jewelry specialty chain that has operated under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection since March 1999, announced that it is going out of business. Service Merchandise, which has more than 200 stores in 32 states, said it will soon begin cutting staff and conducting inventory sales, and plans to file a liquidation plan by Sept. 30. The company says it will fire about 500 of its 9,300 employees in January, with the others receiving staggered termination notices throughout the year.
• 1/4/02 - Bausch & Lomb will close two of its plants and terminate 700 of its employees as it deals with heavy competition. The eye care company said the cuts were made to lower operating costs. 250 people were cut from in its Madrid, Spain location and the rest will be cut as a part of a large restructuring plan affecting all units and regions.
• 1/3/02 - CyberSource Corp., a Mountain View, Calif., provider of electronic payment-processing services, said it has cut its work force by about 36% and is consolidating facilities. The company said its latest job cuts affect 70 employees. Along with 30 employees laid off in the fourth quarter, the company said it has reduced its work force from about 275 employees to 175.
• 1/3/02 - Providian Financial Corp. in an attempt to rectify its investors' confidence in the company, will fire 800 employees. This is expected to save the company $60 million annually and according to CEO Joseph Saunders, will not affect customer service.
• 1/3/02 - Disney will close down 50 of its stores due to lackluster tourism at its parks and lower advertising rates for its networks. The company has closed down 51 stores previously and cut about 4,000 jobs in the past year.
• 1/2/02 - PacifiCare Health Systems Inc. plans to consolidate operations, lay off 15% of its work force, and outsource certain services. Job cuts would fall in the first quarter of 2002 and are expected to include about 1,300 positions across all eight of the company's health-maintenance organizations. The cuts are in addition to 500 to 600 job cuts announced in the first quarter of 2001.
• 1/2/02 - Sykes Enterprises, which provides customer support services for technology companies, will close five of its facilities. The company will also toss 230 administrative workers out the door worldwide. These measures are taken to to meet the low end of its fourth quarter expectations. The company currently has 15,000 employees.