Timesizing® Associates - HOMEPAGE

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Downsizings, April 1-15/2001
[Commentary] ©2001 Phil Hyde, The Timesizing Wire, Box 117, Harvard Square, Cambridge MA 02238 USA (617) 623-8080

4/14/2001  4 downsizings cited in NY Times (NYT) & Boston Globe (BG), totaling 2,436 lost jobs -

1. Merrill Lynch says it expects additional reductions in jobs, Bloomberg via NYT, B3.
   ...[The] company [with] more employees than any [other] securities firm...72,000 people at the end of last year...is considering 1,000 job reductions in its brokerage division...in the research department and institutional securities business..\..to shore up earnings as markets slump [and] save $400m.... The cuts would be the second round by Stanley O'Neal, the president of Merrill's brokerage business and its former CFO. Last July [7/19], the division eliminated 1,800 support jobs.... In the fall of 1998 [10/8], Merrill cut 3,400 jobs during a global rout of stock and bond markets..\..
   Wall Street companies have announced layoffs of about 9,000 people since the last months of 2000, including cuts related to mergers.... About 3,000 people have actually left those firms so far....

2. Warnaco [Group] given some relief by debtors, Bloomberg via NYT, B3.
   ...The maker of Fruit of the Loom and Polo by Ralph Lauren clothes [will] cut 1,000 jobs and close a plant in the Dominican Republic....

3. Etc.- ...Biddeford Textile, Globe staff & wire services, BG, C1.
   ...The blanket mill...laid off its 350 workers in February because of financial problems..\.. The company...may begin calling back 50-60 workers next week and as many as 150 over the next three weeks....
   [But unreported then.]

4. Gen3 [Partners] cuts 25 positions, by Stephanie Stoughton, BG, C1.
   ...A Web consulting firm...struggling with slower demand...had a staff of 136 before it laid off 28 workers last fall. Today, it employs about 50 people....
   [Hmm, 136-50 is 86, a few more than 25+28. We're going to count all 86 jobcuts at this time, since nothing else has been reported in NYT or BG about this firm.]

1. Dow Jones and Times Co. to cut work forces, by Felicity Barringer, NYT, C4.
   Dow Jones & Co. said yesterday that it had trimmed its work force about 3%, and The New York Times Co. announced that it would reduce its staff as both companies turn to job cuts to cope with the profit squeeze caused by a steep falloff in advertising and the increasing cost of paper.
   Dow Jones, parent of The Wall Street Journal and other news operations, said it had laid off 202 employees and had eliminated 300 other vacant positions over the last few months, bringing its work force down to about 8,300 from 8,574 on Dec. 31.
   [We had a Reuters report of 200 Dow Jones layoffs on 4/05 that we didn't count, so let's count these 202 layoffs now. We don't know where they're getting the 3% they mentioned. But 202 is 2.4% of 8574.]
   The Times Co. said it planned an unspecified number of buyouts and raised the possibility of layoffs....

2. Art Technology cuts staff, Bloomberg via NYT, C4.
   The Art Technology Group, which makes software that help run e-commerce sites, said it had laid off 150 workers, or 12% of its work force, to reduce costs.... The company, based in Cambridge, Mass., [will take] other cost-cutting steps [that] will include reductions in salaries and consultant contracts.
   [Here's hoping they reduce hours along with salaries to quit cutting markets by cutting down on layoffs.]

3. 46 workers laid off at Harvard Pilgrim [Health Care], by Liz Kowalczyk, BG, C6.
   ...[Massachusetts'] third-largest HMO laid off 46 employees last week, or just under 3% of the workforce [as] part of an overall strategy to reduce administrative costs.
   [Wait till the paperwork totally fouls up and see how much they've "saved."]
   The employees were laid off from various divisions and worked in offices in Quincy, Wellesley, Maine, and New Hampshire....

1. Heilig-Meyers store closings to affect 3,000 workers, Reuters via NYT, C4.
   The bankrupt retailer [will] close and liquidate the inventory at the remaining 375 Heilig-Meyers stores. There are about 8-10 employees at each store, giving a range of 3,000-3,750 jobs affected by the closings.... The company has already closed 400 underperforming stores and contracted customer credit operations to reduce working capital requirements.
   [So let's split the diff and call it 3,375 lost jobs.]

2. Kozmo to end operations; 1,100 fired, by Jayson Blair [=‘Times reporter who resigned leaves long trail of deception,’ 5/11/2003 NYT, A1], NYT, A25.
   ...Internet retailer....†

3. Layoff plans are announced by Pricewaterhouse..., by Jonathan Glater, NYT, C2.
   PricewaterhouseCoopers, which is based in New York, will lay off 750-1,000 people in its domestic consulting unit, or up to 8.3% of the 12,000 consultants based in the United States \blaming\ declining demand for [its] advisory services.... Employees will receive layoff notices the next few weeks....
   [We'll call it 875 lost jobs.]

4. Layoff plans are announced by...Scient, by Jonathan Glater, NYT, C2.
   ...An e-consulting firm based in San Francisco...plans to reduce its work force as much as 64%, or as many as 850 positions, by the end of June \blaming\ declining demand for [its] advisory services.... The firm will also move its headquarters to New York, shrink its offices in Boston and San Francisco and close offices in Los Angeles and possibly elsewhere....
   [In "Struggling consultants to join forces," Bloomberg via 8/01/2001 NYT, C8, we read "Scient cut 675 jobs, or half its staff, in April." But this figure may have excluded additional cuts in May and June that would bring the total up to 850.]

5. Yahoo reports quarterly loss and schedules round of cuts, by Saul Hansell, NYT, C1.
   ...The big but beleagured Internet service reported its first quarterly loss in two years yesterday and [will] lay off 12% [420] of its workforce of 3,510. It also announced a variety of other cost-cutting moves, including paring marketing expenses and eliminating some parts of its sprawling service....
   [Too bad it didn't have the imagination to get a BGO (blinding glimpse of the obvious) and just cut hours 12%, not jobs.]

6. Putnam [Investments] to lay off 256 workers - Sagging market cited in 4% staff cut, by Beth Healy, BG, E1.

7. Loudeye [Technologies] to cut staff by 45%, by Andrew Zipern, NYT, C6.
   ...[A maker of] software to broadcast audio and video on the Internet [is] laying off...about 135 employees.... In January, Loudeye warned that revenue would slow because of weakness in the market and in the company's new-media customer....

8. Borders turns to Amazon.com to rescue its ailing Web site, Washington Post via BG, E5.
   ...The venture is expected to eliminate about 70 jobs at Borders.com, but...most of the employees could be absorbed by other Borders operations....
   [Doesn't sound like there's any big mgmt commitment to that scenario.]

9. Motorola warns of bigger loss in 2d quarter, more job cuts, Bloomberg via NYT, C4.
   ...Motorola has cut 22,000 jobs since December [see roundup yesterday, 4/11, #3] and said more positions will soon be slashed....
   [Unspecified.]

1. Marconi cutting jobs, by Suzanne Kapner, NYT, W1.
   Marconi PLC of Britain [will] eliminate 3,000 jobs, or 5.5% of its staff, as it faces a slowdown in demand for phone equipment....

2. Marconi cutting jobs, by Suzanne Kapner, NYT, W1.
   ...Siemens of Germany said yesterday that it would cut 2,000 jobs....

3. Motorola reports weakness in the growth of its orders - An operating loss is the first in 15 years - A company warns that America's woes are crossing borders, by Barnaby Feder, NYT, C4.
   ...Since December, Motorola has announced a series of cutbacks and sales of operations that are set to eliminate 22,000 positions from a global work force of 147,000.
   [Well, let's see. So far we've only counted 2500 (1/16) + 2870 (1/18) + 4000 (2/10) + 300 (2/22) + 7000 (3/14) + 4000 (3/24), totaling 20,670, so now we get to count the last of the 22,000, which is 1,330.]

4. Key shifts made at Critical Path, Bloomberg via NYT, C6.
   ...A software company under investigation by the SEC, dismissed its president today and said that it would cut 450 jobs to reduce costs as it concentrates on email services....
   [Here's what a great idea this particular restructuring was. From "Loss reported by Critical Path," Reuters via 5/15/2001 NYT, C4, we learn that "license, service and maintenance sales were hurt by the technology spending slowdown and customers' reluctance to buy products amid recent management changes. Critical Path's sales staff was also distracted after managers either resigned or were fired early in the quarter." So much for shakeup for the sake of shakeup. Let's have less testosterone and more interpersonal skills!]

5. ANTEC cutting 400 jobs, Bloomberg via NYT, C5.
   ...factory and management positions in Duluth, Ga.; Englewood, Oh.; El Paso, Tx.; and Juarez, Mexico..\.. [This maker of] equipment to send Internet service and phone calls over cable television lines [is] cutting 17% of its work force....
   [ANTEC's original press release, "ANTEC to implement force reduction program," PRNewswire 04/10/2001 08:45 EDT via AOLNews via RadioTony, adds that the reduction brings "the ANTEC workforce [down] to a total of approximately 2000 employees [and] eliminates direct labor positions in ANTEC's southwestern factories as well as management and support positions throughout ANTEC...." ANTEC avoided a higher downsizing count by timesizing down to a 4-day workweek in some locations - see our 'glimmers of timesizing' page today, 4/11/2001. Note that, because of the prevailing time blindness of the media, this - the most vital factoid in the whole story in the perspective of our economic future - was completely unnoticed by the NYT.]

6. Chadwick's, a catalog retailer, will eliminate 300 jobs, AP via NYT, C4.
   ...The catalog retailer [citing] declining sales..\..will cut...in West Bridgewater and Taunton Mass., beginning in May...about 20% of its work force. The company first will reduce personnel through a voluntary resignation program, with cash incentives and benefits continuation, then layoffs.

7. Maker of billing software to lay off half of personnel, Bloomberg via NYT, C4.
   Daleen Technologies Inc. [will] cut about 200 jobs [32%], close two facilities and have a wider-than expected loss for the first quarter.... Daleen, which is based in Boca Raton, Fla., will shut facilities in Atlanta and Toronto and consolidate its Boca Raton operations....

8. After being bought, maker of headlights cuts 138 jobs, AP via NYT, C4.
   ...Guide has cut...20% of its nonunion work force...on Monday \in both\ salaried and contract positions in a restructuring after its sale earlier this year...to Vehicle Lighting..\.. The company also blamed the weakness in the auto industry.... Guide...employs about 3,000 people.

1. NEC to halt D-RAM chip production in U.S., Dow Jones via NYT, C4.
   ...A Japanese semiconductor maker had announced Friday that it would cut 700 of the 1,600 employees [44%] at..\..its semiconductor assembly and test operations in Roseville, Calif..\..citing a severe downturn in demand....
   [Announced Friday and finally reported four days later.]

2. NBC to shut most of its NBCi Web portal - A name brand fails to attract users of the Internet, by Chris Gaither, NYT, C4.
   ...The company [will] lay off about half of its 370 employees within the next week and eventually close its New York offices and San Francisco headquarters....
   [IE: 185 jobcuts.]

3. Sawtek trims profit forecast and says it will cut jobs, Bloomberg via NYT, C4.
   ...A maker of cellular-phone components...based in Apopka, Fla..\..said yesterday that profit and sales for the rest of 2001 would be lower than in 2000 and that it will cut 35 jobs in Costa Rica because of a slowdown in the wireless and communications markets....

4. SEC budget seeks staff cuts in fraud enforcement, AP via BG, C2.
   WASHINGTON - "Pres." Bush's budget proposes staff reductions in securities fraud investigations and enforcement even as the Securities and Exchange Commission acknowledges that the jumpy stock market brings more opportunities for abuse....
   [Well, that sends a pretty clear message. Looks like Baby "Bush League" Bush may turn out to be more like handsome corrupt Republican president Warren Harding than honest but badly timed Republican president Herbert Hoover - or with "luck," both corrupt and badly timed. Looks like his rich campaign contributors are not only short-sighted and grabby, but corner-cuttingly corrupt as well.]
   The SEC budget proposal, the first since Bush took office, also includes staff reductions in inspections of mutual funds, now owned by 49% of all US households....
   [Hm, so they've climbed down from the "51%%" where they could claim that a "majority of Americans" (never mind just one person somewhere in a household) "owned stock."]
   The already overworked attorneys and examiners at the SEC and their support staff will have to do even more....
   [Or rather they'll fail to do even more. What a slide this country is in! Phew! Guess we're witnessing all the mechanisms by which Rome "declined and fell."]

1. Wieden & Kennedy is cutting staff 12%, by Stuart Elliott, NYT, C12.
   In another sign of the effect of the slowing economy on advertising, [an international] technology-advertising \agency\ is laying off 12% of 314 employees [i.e., 38] at its headquarters in Portland, Ore., and its New York office. They are the first major dismissals at the agency since June 1998; overseas offices in Amsterdam, London and Tokyo are not affected. Don Wieden, the company's president, blamed "economic realities that have to be faced," for the move. While there have not been spending cuts by clients like Coca-Cola, ESPN, Miller Brewing and Nike, there are obviously far fewer opportunities in technology advertising, a specialty field of the agency.

1. Enron is planning to eliminate about 250 jobs, Bloomberg via NYT, B3.
   ...The energy trading company [will] eliminate about...20% of the jobs at its broadband telecommunications unit. ...The company was cutting jobs at the unit, which now employs 1,150 people, because it had completed its 18,000-mile fiber optic network and because of slow demand for streaming media products delivered to personal computers....

2. Etc. - Segue Software Inc.,, Globe Wire Services via BG, C1.
   ...a Lexington [Mass.] maker of software that helps sell products over the Internet, plans to cut about 40 jobs, or about 10% of the workforce, and trim marketing and spending....

1. A telecom start-up will cut 43% of jobs and halt expansion, by Simon Romero, NYT, C1.
   Yet another once-promising upstart has demonstrated how difficult it can be to achieve a foothold in the telecommuications industry. Winstar Communications...based in New York \will\ eliminate 2,000 jobs...and halt expansion of its network, which provides telephone and Internet service to 32,000 business customers worldwide. Winstar, which said the job cuts would take place immediately, said it had enough money to continue operating for another year. But investors...have already begun treating the company as if it were destined for collapse.... Even as big communications carriers have been hit by the economic downturn, smaller companies like Winstar have had an even tougher time.... "Winstar was just too ambitious and aggressive for its own good," said Jerry Paul [of] Invesco Funds....

2. Idex says it will cut 250 jobs and combine two plants, Bloomberg via NYT, C4.
   ...in Michigan. \The\ maker of pumps and dispensing equipment...based in Northbrook, Ill. \will\ cut about...6% of its work force.... Reduced demand in manufacturing ha[s] hurt sales....

3. Sycamore warns of loss, Bloomberg via NYT, C4.
   The fiber optic equipment maker [will] cut 140 jobs, or about 13% of its work force....

4. TiVo announces cutbacks, Reuters via NYT, C4.
   ...[A provider of] a TV recording device called a personal video recorder, or PVR, and a subscriber service to accompany the PVR..\..announced a number of cost-cutting measures yesterday including layoffs of up to 25% of its staff to shore up financing, but said subscriber growth would meet earlier estimates....
   [Cutting off a quarter of your team "to shore up financing" despite growth being on target? Sick. And no specific numbers.]

1. Supervalu cuts jobs and takes a charge to earnings, Bloomberg via NYT, C4.
   ...A food distribution and supermarket company [will] cut 4,500 jobs, or 7.3% of its workforce, as it consolidates distribution centers and leaves some retail markets.... The revamping follows the loss of a food-distribution contract with Kmart.... Supervalu, based in Eden Prairie, Minn., also released results for...the fourth quarter of its fiscal year and said it lost $93m in contrast to a profit of $72m a year earlier.

2. Visteon says it will eliminate 1,800 jobs worldwide, Bloomberg via NYT, C4.
   ...including 12% [950] of its salaried workforce in the United States, as North American vehicle production slows. \This\ leading auto parts maker [will] take a charge of about $135m in Q1 for the job reductions, which represent about 2.2% of the total workforce.

3. Mattel to lay off 980 workers and close a plant, Bloomberg via NYT, C4.
   ...its last U.S. manufacturing plant...to cut costs.... The plant, in Murray, Ky., makes Fisher-Price toys. It will be shut down over the next 18 to 24 months.... Production will be moved to Mexico.

4. Akamai planning to cut 180 jobs - Dot-com shakeout, slow economy cited in revenue, sales lag, by Bruce Butterfield, NYT, E1.
   Akamai Technologies Inc. of Cambridge [Mass.], one of last year's hottest technology start-ups, yesterday joined a growing list of Massachusetts companies laying off workers in response to lagging sales and a slowdown in expected growth. The company announced it was cutting 180 jobs, about 14% of its workforce of 1,300....

5. Cost-cutting at TheStreet.com includes another 40 layoffs, by Jayson Blair [=‘Times reporter who resigned leaves long trail of deception,’ 5/11/2003 NYT, A1], NYT, C6.
   ...The online financial news service whose once-soaring stock and detailed coverage of the markets helped symbolzie the Internet boom [lordy, they're STILL not saying "bubble" or putting "boom" in quotes! -ed.] said yesterday that it would lay off 20% of its workforce...in a restructuring aimed at saving cash and reaching profitability.... Thirty-nine of the jobs cut were in New York; the other was in San Francisco. ...Most layoffs were in the newsroom..\..
   The dismissals and other cuts are expected to save about $15m a year. TheStreet.com has about $60m cash on hand. Through the end of 2000, it was spending about $15m a quarter....
   "We have made these difficult but deliberate business decisions as a necessary response to fundamental changes in the economic environment," the company's CEO, Thomas Clarke, said yesterday in a statement.
   [Nothing has "fundamentally" changed in the economic environment - these clowns were gratuitously cutting jobs and damaging their own markets then, and they're gratuitously cutting jobs and damaging their own markets now. If they could only see and hear the reaction of CEOs 100 years from now to this barbaric practice, they would crawl into a hole and die of shame and embarrassment. The pathetic and self-destructive "strategy" of mass layoffs, instead of minor workweek adjustments for the whole company coupled with retraining and cross-training, is on the level of slave auctioning 150 years ago, or genital mutilation in Africa today. Throwing people out of work en masse is nothing but economic murder, and the most successful economies of the future will be the ones that treat it as such soonest. That's why Europe in general and France in particular are going to be enjoying slow but solid growth while America and Japan sink into the Third-World void surrounding a Black Hole economy, where money is so densely concentrated in the top income brackets that first its function as currency goes, and then its function as a store of value. "The more concentration, the less circulation." But the hopeful vice-versa relationship holds as well - "the more centrifugation, the more circulation." And sharing the vanishing market-demanded yet-uncomputerized employment alias timesizing is the key to centrifuging income during our lifetimes.]

6. Layoffs at Merrill Lynch, Bloomberg via NYT, C8.
   ...29 public finance investment bankers and staffers, or a third of its municipal banking staff, the company said. Merrill...is keeping regional bankers who cover the Northeast and the West Coast.... Bankers in education, health care and housing will also be retained....

7. Etc. - Open Market Inc., BG, E7.
   ...warned that...it would cut staff by about 25%...citing the economic slowdown and an uncertain business climate.

1. Solectron will cut another 1,075 jobs and close plant, Bloomberg via NYT, C4.
   ...A contract electronics manufacturer [plans] to cut...1.5%...and would close a Georgia plant because of slowing demand. Workers at the plant, in Suwanee, Ga., will be laid off over the next few months.... Some could get an option to move to another Solectron plant, depending on demand.... Solectron said last month [3/20] that it had cut 8,200 jobs and that it would take a $300-400m charge this quarter for the dismissals and to reconfigure factories.
   [Two non-parallel conjunctive clauses so far - where is the NYT editor?!]
   The cuts are in addition to those in March....
   ["Death by a thousand cuts."]

2. Firepond lays off, Dow Jones via BG, D9.
   ...Waltham MA-based \seller of\ software to help companies improve sales performance..\..plans to cut about 20% of its work force or 650 employees across all departments in the next several months, citing the global slowdown in information technology spending and synergies from the acquisition of Brightware Inc.
   [Takeover>downsizing.]
   ...About 40% of the cuts will be from its contracted offshore development organization. [Its] shares fell....

3. MicroStrategy to cut 600 jobs, by Andrew Zipern, NYT, C4.
   ...The beleaguered business data software company [will] lay off...one-third of its workforce.... The company, based in Vienna, Va., has been badly hurt in the market slowdown, losing more than 99% of its market value.
   [Such a nice-sounding place, "Vienna, Virginia," for such a dastardly deed.]
   Michael Saylor, its CEO, said the company would cut research and development spending for technology projects unrelated to the company's core business of making software that analyzes customer data. Its shares jumped....

4. Raytheon Aircraft to eliminate 450 white-collar jobs, AP via NYT, C4.
   ...administrative and managerial jobs, about 10% of the company's managerial workforce in Kansas..\..citing a softening economy.... "I would characterize this move as pre-emptory in a soft economy, in the context of a weak stock market," said a Raytheon spokesman, Jim Gregory....
   [Well, Jim, first of all, stocks' weakness is irrelevant except as an indication that the wealthy have finally realized their consumer base is too small and their investment bubble too big. Secondly, your negative pre-emption will be a self-fulfilling prophecy because it will further soften the economy. Dumb dumb dumb.]
   The company employees 10,200 people in Kansas, most at its Wichita site where most of the cuts will be made.

5. Wave of Wall St. layoffs reaches Salomon, by Patrick McGeehan, NYT, C11.
   Citigroup became the latest Wall Street firm to lay off employees amid the prolonged slump in the stock market, when it started notifiying hundreds of workers yesterday that their jobs were being eliminated.
   [Well, ordinarily we'd go conservative and just say 200-300 here but a Reuters story on AOLNews via RadioTony says "'at least a few hundred' staff, the New York Times reported on its Web site on Tuesday." "A few hundred" is already 300 minimum, so we'll go conservatively with 400 now and watch for specifics later.]
   The layoffs began yesterday morning and will continue until several hundred people in the corporate and investment banking operations of the Salomon Smith Barney unit of Citigroup have been let go, people inside the firm said. Dismissed employees could be seen carrying cardboard boxes of their belongings from the firm's buildings on Greenwich Street in the TriBeCa district of Manhattan.
   [= economic refugees.]
   Arda Nazerian, a Salomon Smith Barney spokeswoman, confirmed that layofss had begun and said that most of them would come in support areas like operations and technology. Some of the cuts will come in the investment banking and the stock and bond sales and trading division, she said, but she declined to provide specific numbers....
   [It's the morons in investment banking and stock and bond sales who are most to blame for the downturn, because they fanned the suicidal link bettween cutting jobs and hyping stock price. They incentivized the downturn and their own business hit. But their little minds don't go far in seeking an explanation. All they say is "tight-fisted consumers!" - see today's Collapse news - 4/4/2001.]

6. Online wine seller cuts jobs, by Laurie Flynn, NYT, C4.
   Succumbing to the economic downturn, Wine.com, the leading online wine seller laid off nearly two-thirds of its staff yesterday in an effort to stave off financial ruin. The layoffs included 160 jobs in Napa, Calif. and San Francisco and followed the layoff of 75 workers in January. In December, the company said its year-to-year sales had tripled during 2000 along with the number of customers. The company, known as Virtual Vineyards when it was founded in 1994, acquired the assets of Wine.com in September 1999 and changed its name and Internet address.
   [Takeover>downsizing. 160+75 (hitherto unreported in NYT/BG) = 235 total cuts. If 160 is 2/3, total staff is 240 plus the previous 75 cuts makes it originally 315. So 235 cuts is a 75% downsizing overall.]

7. Newspaper economics - Cuts raise concern about the quality of journalism, by Felicity Barringer, NYT, C1, C2.
   ...The Oregonian in Portland...with a daily circulation of 348,000, is having cuts, but its newsroom still has a budget for about 435 jouranlists....
   [Unspecified jobcuts.]

1. DuPont to cut 4,000 jobs to de-emphasize slow-growth areas - Chemical companies turn away from the life sciences concept [i.e., biotech], by Claudia Deutsch, NYT, C4.
   The DuPont Co., seeking to move assets out of slow-growth businesses, [will] cut...about 4% of its workforce, as well as 1,300 contract workers. About half the cuts will come in DuPont's nylon and polyester businesses, and about 3,000 of the jobs will be eliminated in the United States. DuPont said the action will save $400m a year....
   [So we're talking 4000+1300= 5,300 jobcuts here. 4000 is 4% so the total workforce must be 100,000. Plus contract workers of whom we only know about 1300, for a grand total of 101,300. So 5300 is roughly 5% of the pre-layoff workforce.]
   Gary M. Pfeiffer, DuPont's CFO, said that the cuts would have been made even if the economy had continued to boom. "This is about positioning ourselves for sustainable growth," he said....
   ["Sustainable growth" based on a downsized workforce and consumer base? We don't think so.]
   In seasrching for growth industries, DuPont, whose formal name is E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co., is the latest chemical company to walk away from the idea of a life sciences industry. Under that concept, biotechnology would be a bridge between agricultural and pharmaceutical products, with chemical companies active in both areas. The concept turned out to be unworkable. While the science in the two areas was similar, the end markets were too different.
   [Or maybe they're just getting scared that consumers don't want "Franken-farming" and Franken-foods - hope, hope.]
   Monsanto, Norvartis and Aventis have all spun off their pharmaceutical arms. In December, DuPont said that it too was looking to sell its pharmaceutical business....

2. PolyOne to close some plastic and pigment plants, Bloomberg via NYT, C4.
   [Again the lethal takeover-downsizing connection -]
   ...A chemical maker created by the merger last year of the M.A. Hanna Co. and the Geon Co. [will] eliminate at least one-third of its 34 plants that make pigments and plastics within two years. A total of 2,500 employees work at the 34 plants.... Dennis Cocco, chief communications officer at the company...said he did not know how many jobs would be cut.
   [We're gonna take a wild guess and peg this at 2500/3 = 833 jobcuts for the moment. This number may only be 525 according to "PolyOne, rubber compounds maker, to close plants," Bloomberg via 9/01/2001 NYT, B4, which says, "The job cuts and shutdowns...are in addition to at least eight plant closings and the reduction of 525 jobs announced by PolyOne in the last three months - if we can stretch that to "last five months." See 9/01, #5.]
   PolyOne is based in Cleveland.
   [This way they're fueling recession. Too bad they didn't pick up a little trick from their highly competitive neighbor in Cleveland, Lincoln Electric, and cut their workweek, not their workforce.]

3. Ariba, software maker, reports loss and plans cuts, AP via NYT, C4.
   The business transaction software maker [will] report a significant loss for the second quarter and [plans] to cut about 700 jobs, nearly one-third of its workforce....

4. Job cuts at i2 Technologies, by Andrew Zipern, NYT, C6.
   ...[A maker of] software that links manufacturers and their suppliers said yesterday that its Q1 earnings would be lower than expected and that it would cut 600 jobs, or 10% of its workforce. The company is based in Irving, Texas....
   [Probably the home town of Irving Gas.]

5. Etc. - Court TV and Brill's Content magazine, Globe wire services via BG, C2.
   ...[founder] Steven Brill, the media entrepreneur...is buying Powerful Media, parent company of the media news Web site Inside.com.... Brill said the merger would bring layoffs.
   [Oh that statement should help his productivity - not.  Maybe it's time to think about renaming his takeover victim. We suggest Impotent Media.]

1. Ameritrade [Holding] to cut 170 jobs, Bloomberg via NYT, C2.
   ...The online brokerage firm [will] eliminate...about 7.4% of [its] workforce of 2,300 \mostly\ at call centers in Omaha and Fort Worth, as declining markets discouraged...trading. The reduction is the second this year.... In January, Ameritrade eliminated 229 jobs....
   [We have that one from AP at "about 300" jobcuts on 1/09/2001.]

2. Agencies announce sharp cuts in staff, by Stuart Elliott, NYT, C13.
   ...Giant Step, part of the Leo Burnett USA unit of Leo Burnett Worldwide in Chicago, is...dismissing 52 of 227 employees because of "the current economic climate," the agency said in a statement, and to ensure its "continued success and profitability.
   [In other words, it's in profit but it's still downsizing. Such a company deserves bankruptcy, since it's doing its darndest to damage its customers' customers and induce depression.]
   The layoffs are mostly at the Giant Step Chicago office; some are in New York. The dismissals came after Burnett, owned by the Bcom3 Group, laid off 200 employees, or about 9% of its American workforce....
   [That was another stupid self-mutilating cut on their part, on 2/08/2001.]

3. Agencies announce sharp cuts in staff, by Stuart Elliott, NYT, C13.
   ...Rapp Collins Worldwide in New York, which is part of the Omnicom Group, is closing the office in Minneapolis [because of] a need to improve efficiency..\..and will be consolidating the accounts handled there at its Chicago office.... Of the 27 employees in Minneapolis..."more than 5" who are part of senior management would be offered the chance to relocate [in] Chicago....
   [Oh what an opportunity! The chance to move from Minneapolis to Chicago! Yuk. With this level of incentive, we'll count all 27 as layoffs.]

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Jul.1-15/2000.
Jun/2000.
May/2000.
Apr/2000.
Mar/2000.
Feb/2000.
Jan/2000.
Dec/1999.
Nov/99.
Oct/99.
Sept/99.
Aug.16-31/99.
Aug.1-15/99.
July/99.
May-Jun/99.
Mar-Apr/99.
Jan-Feb/99.
December/98.
November/98.
October/98.
prior to Sept. 30/98.

For more details, our laypersons' guide to our great economic future Timesizing, Not Downsizing is available at bookstores in Harvard Square, Cambridge, Mass. or from *Amazon.com online.

Questions, comments, feedback? Phone 617-623-8080 (Boston) or email us.