NBC Internet will lay off 150 employees — 30 percent of its work force — because of a soft online advertising market, the company said today.
Positions will be eliminated in all areas of the company. The firings will offset an anticipated revenue shortfall due to the slowing online ad market, the company said in a statement.
NBCi is changing its revenue projections for this year to about $100 million, down from its previous projection of $150 million.
“We are determined to reach profitability within the same time frame we reported at the end of the third quarter 2000,” said Will Lansing, CEO of NBCi. “But to reach this goal we needed to make difficult decisions on the operational side of our business to account for the challenges within the online advertising market.”
NBCi was started in November 1999 with backing from NBC, CNET's snap.com, Xoom.com, NBC.com, NBC Interactive Neighborhood, VideoSeeker and a 10 percent equity stake in CNBC.com. NBC owns 39.2 percent of NBCi.
The cuts come on the heels of this week's layoffs at cable network CNN, which cut 400 employees. New York Times Digital cut 69 employees on Jan. 7.
