The week in tech layoffs
With financial troubles taking their toll on every sector of the economy, an increasing number of companies are laying off employees to stay afloat. And the technology industry is no different.
The long and growing list of tech companies planning staff cuts ranges from Pandora to Tesla Motors, leaving a slew of highly trained workers looking for new opportunities:
- Appcelerator, an open-source software company that develops products and services for rapid rich Internet application development, was forced to close its Atlanta office Wednesday and lay off its remaining six employees working in the city.
- Pandora, the online music streaming service, announced Thursday that it was forced to lay off 20 employees because, as its founder pointed out, it's simply "not immune to the challenges presented by the current economic turmoil."
- Hi5, the third-largest social network, confirmed Thursday that it laid off "10 to 15 percent" of its staff in a restructuring plan that will see some go, but others hired in different areas of the company. Like other companies in the market, Hi5 wants to be prepared for any economic troubles it may face.
- Business social-software maker Jive Software reportedly laid off one-third of its workforce Tuesday to, you guessed it, stay ahead of what it perceives will be a tumultuous economic environment in coming months.
- Sirius XM announced Thursday that it laid off 50 on-air and off-air employees in its Washington, D.C., office. The layoffs were the result of a companywide belt tightening on the part of Sirius XM to help it eventually turn a profit and grow its free cash flow.
- Redfin, an online brokerage for residential real estate, laid off 20 percent of its employees earlier this week in a move that it claims had more to do with the current economic conditions than its business model. There are 75 to 80 employees remaining at the company.
- Tesla Motors announced Wednesday that it will lay off its entire Detroit office staff to adapt to the changing economic conditions. The company claims the layoffs will help it achieve its goal of becoming cash-flow-positive within the next six to nine months.
- AdBrite, the "Web's online ad marketplace," announced that it laid off 40 percent of its staff. The company's CEO, Iggy Fanlo, claims the move has nothing to do with performance and everything to do with his desire to make AdBrite profitable immediately.
- Zivity, the start-up that specializes in letting people vote on the best adult pictures on its service, has laid off one-third of its staff over concern about future economic troubles.
- Last Friday, Seesmic, a video microblog, announced that it laid off one-third of its workforce due to uncertainty and the company's desire to be prepared if the economy gets worse.
Although each company has its own rationale for the layoffs, they all seem concerned about staying competitive and maintaining a sound financial structure to weather tough times.
We'll be updating this list. Perhaps it will help bridge those companies looking to hire experienced employees with those seeking new opportunities.
Click here for ongoing coverage from CNET News, "Tough times for tech"
Don Reisinger is a technology columnist who has written about everything from HDTVs to computers to Flowbee Haircut Systems. Don is a member of the CNET Blog Network, and posts at The Digital Home. He is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure.
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XM / Sirius spend millions lobbying for the merger with the cry of even better service and no layoffs. Three of my favorite channels that played music are replaced with commercial radio over satellite with 60% commercials -- and yeah, I really the layoffs were not a result of the merger. Our Washington agencies that are supposed to be watching out for us (and the entire legislature) are bought and paid for by these fat cat companies.
Tesla's rep is that they were a bunch of Silicon Valley geeks that didn't need no steenking help from those clowns in Detroit who had been learning about building cars for a hundred years. Then they had a change of heart and decided that the device had great circuits and super software but couldn;t transport anyone reliably, so enter the experienced guys. Well, guess what, the geeks are still in control and when times get bad, they made the "tough decision". The tough decision is to fire yourself, jerks, My bet is this thing will go the way of the Tucker -- along with the lawsuits from all of the suckers who laid out cash for dealerships and cars. Wonder if they will circle the block with barefly functioning Teslas at the triall.
If Pandora had managment with the sense of an ugly third grader they would be climbing Mount Money. The only good player in the market, MusicMatch, was bought up and instantly killed by the bright lights at Yahoo. Yeah the same guys who watched their stock drop to a third of what a dumb, cash -rich company offered a few months ago.
Management talent abounds. At least they will be able to pay themselves gazillion dollar bonuses for running a company so badly that they had to get rid of the talent and die a rapid death. Ah, American business management -- If they get any worse, we are going to have a total meltdown.
It is appropriate this correction will bring forward a new economic system that will have better resilency against future failure and necessary for the failures of company to induce creative destruction to provide opportunities for others.