Embattled Excite@Home Corp. is again wielding the ax with an announcement
that it will close its MatchLogic online-advertising-management subsidiary and
lay off about 500 more workers in the next three months.
That move comes even as rumors of a pending Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing
continue to circulate for the Redwood City, Calif.-based company.
About 200 of the 500 workers getting pink slips are at MatchLogic, a
Westminster, Colo.-based company Excite@Home bought for $89 million in stock in
1998. Most of the MatchLogic employees will leave Wednesday, but about 40 will
stay on to close down the office.
Needless to say, the subsidiary's ad-measurement and targeted-ads services
will cease, as well. 'It's not a priority right now,' an Excite@Home spokeswoman
said.
The job cuts are the largest in a string of layoffs that started in January
for Excite@Home. Combined, they will shrink the company's work force to about
1,350 by the end of the year.
A majority of the 300 other job cuts center on the Excite portal service as
the company pares down its content lineup. While core services such as
electronic mail, search and the 'My Excite' customized start pages will remain,
certain channel areas such as shopping and games will be pruned. Users seeking
that content will find directories instead, with references and links to other
Web sites.
'This is part of the actions we have taken recently that focus on broadband,
help to bolster cash position and help reduce operating costs,' the spokeswoman
said.
But that doesn't signal a move to shut down the Excite.com narrowband content
portal, according to the company.
'One, we are essentially streamlining this,' the spokeswoman said. 'The
second thing is that Excite.com supports @Home2000, the personalized content
experience for the @Home subscribers. So we re-engineer the portal applications,
but this is still a critical part of the broadband
operations.'
