Ads by TechWords

See your link here
Receive the latest technology news and information.
Enterprise Software
Computerworld Daily News (First Look and Wrap-Up)
Computerworld Blogs Newsletter
The Weekly Top 10
Cloud Computing
View all newsletters




Privacy Policy
 

Software vendor Firepond cuts staff by 30%

June 13, 2001 12:00 PM ET

Computerworld - Sales and customer service software vendor Firepond Inc. yesterday announced that it's laying off about 190 workers worldwide, or 30% of its workforce, as part of a restructuring aimed at conserving cash resources.

The Waltham, Mass.-based company said it will take a restructuring charge in its third quarter, which ends July 30.

"It essentially affects every operation we have worldwide," company spokesman Eric Snow said. In addition to its headquarters in Waltham, Firepond has operations in San Raphael, Calif., and Mankato, Minn., as well as in Japan, England, France, Germany and other countries.

Snow said the company had about 650 employees worldwide before the cutbacks.

Like many other companies, Firepond is cutting back on expenses to try to better position itself during the current economic slowdown, he said.

Klaus Besier, Firepond's chairman and CEO, said in a statement that the company is "taking this difficult action at this time in order to position Firepond for the long term in the face of a challenging market."

Denis Pombriant, an analyst at Aberdeen Group Inc. in Boston, said Firepond's software products are well built and seem to be successful wherever they've been used.

"It appears recently that they've been doing fairly well going after the health care market," Pombriant said. "It's the general economy bringing them to the need to reduce their workforce, not necessarily their product line."

In its second quarter, ended April 30, Firepond reported $12.3 million in revenue and a pro forma net loss of $14.6 million, compared with $13.6 million in revenue and a pro forma net loss of $1.9 million for the same quarter a year ago.



Related stories:



Read more about careers in Computerworld's Careers Knowledge Center.



Jump to comments

Careers

Additional Resources

EFD vs. HDD - What You Need to Know
WHITE PAPER
Enterprise flash drives provide a new Tier 0 storage layer capable of delivering high I/O performance at a very low latency. Proper use of EFDs in an Oracle environment can deliver increased performance compared to fibre channel drives. Read the recommendations for identification of the best DB components for EFDs.
Gartner Research Report: Magic Quadrant for Application Delivery Controllers, 2009
WHITE PAPER
The market for products to improve the delivery of application software over networks remains dynamic and innovative. Vendors focused on solving enterprises' most-pressing application problems have become the top players.
Eight Criteria for Server Load Balancing
WHITE PAPER
Server load balancers are a simple yet highly effective means to scale an application environment while ensuring its availability. Today's solutions should also address application performance and security. Read about the top eight criteria you should consider when choosing a server load balancer and how Citrix NetScaler meets those requirements.

White Papers & Webcasts

Open Source Master Data Management: The Time is Right
MDM is a natural extension to data integration and data quality. Open source MDM introduces a new, more accessible approach. It reduces implementation...  

The Value of Real SaaS at Workday
Download this short video! Provided by Workday

The Top 10 Reasons for Choosing Open Source Data Integration
Are you trying to understand your options for data integration? This White Paper presents the top 10 reasons why organizations are choosing open...  

BMC Application Performance and Analytics: Predictive Intelligence in Action
See the highlights of BMC's Application Performance and Analytics today!

Overcoming Single Provider MPLS Limitations
Download this white paper today!  

The Shift from Legacy Application Servers to Tomcat
Download this valuable white paper written by Bill Laberis, Editorial Director of Computerworld Custom Solutions Group.  

Bringing Web 2.0 to the Enterprise
Downlaod this white paper now!  

The Workday User Experience Video
Watch Workday's Creative Director, Scott Lietzke, discuss the business-centered design philosophy at Workday.


IT Jobs