Luminant Worldwide Plans to Layoff 175
After failing to meet revenue expectations, Web consulting firm Luminant Worldwide Corp. in Dallas announced it will lay off 18% of its workforce, or about 175 employees, reducing the total number of workers to 775. The company said it was also restructuring its business to reach profitability. Luminant's revenue for the third quarter was $38 million, a decline of 5% from the second quarter.
Other Internet consulting firms, including Chicago-based Xpedior Inc., Atlanta-based iXL Enterprises and Boston-based Viant Corp., have also had lower-than-expected third-quarter earnings, due in part to the curtailed electronic-business spending by cash-strapped dot-coms.
IBM Announces WebSphere for Linux
IBM last week announced a version of its WebSphere e-commerce software application to run on the Linux operating system. IBM said the new Linux version of the software will be available from the four major distributors of Linux: Caldera Systems Inc., Red Hat Inc., SuSE AG and TurboLinux Inc.
Transmeta IPO Comes Amid Chip Evaluation
Microprocessor designer Transmeta Corp. launched its highly anticipated 13 million-share initial public offering (IPO) on the Nasdaq Stock Market last week, with shares closing at twice the initial price. But questions about the performance of Transmeta's low-power Crusoe chip - and hesitation on the part of some big U.S.-based computer makers to use the chip - continue to haunt the San Francisco-based chip maker.
Transmeta's Crusoe microprocessors are designed for performance at low power, prolonging battery life in mobile computers. The chips are x86 processor-compatible, which allows them to accept applications designed for Intel Corp. processors. Earlier this month, IBM backed out of tentative plans to use Transmeta's chips in its ThinkPad 240 notebooks.