InfoUSA Inc. announced yesterday that 75 additional jobs were cut as part of the company's latest round of downsizing aimed at achieving profitability.
The recently eliminated positions, which included 63 jobs at infoUSA.com, bring the total number of job cuts to 325. The database marketing service provider first announced the layoffs Dec. 14. All of the cuts became effective Dec. 18.
The company had hoped to turn infoUSA.com into an independent spinoff, said Stormy Dean, chief financial officer at infoUSA, Omaha, NE. The company cited a weakening economy and the possibility of a recession when outlining the reasons for the cutbacks, as well as a need to cut expenses and increase cash flow.
“With the change in market conditions, there doesn't appear to be any opportunity to take infoUSA.com public in the foreseeable future,” Dean said. “We made the adjustment in an effort to turn infoUSA.com to profitability as quickly as possible.”
The cuts at infoUSA.com, Foster City, CA, eliminated staff made redundant by infoUSA's decision not to take the dot-com public, Dean said. InfoUSA.com was originally set up with support departments, such as human resources, that it will no longer need.
Most of the layoffs were at the company's headquarters in Omaha, although 50 to 100 positions will be eliminated at infoUSA operations in New Jersey, New York and Canada.
The company also closed its VideoYellowPages.com division, an online business directory, and scaled back its businessCreditUSA.com division. The company did not reveal how many of the job eliminations took place at the two divisions.
The downsizing brings infoUSA's work force down to 1,660 employees. The layoffs included some executive positions, although the firm has declined to reveal which officers have been eliminated.
InfoUSA also announced that it would incur an unspecified fourth-quarter charge as a result of the reorganization. The company projects that the cuts will make it profitable during the first quarter of 2001.
The cutbacks follow an October downsizing of 50 employees at infoUSA. The company also cut 10 jobs at VideoYellowPages.com in November but did not plan at that time to close the division, expecting only to cut its investment in the operation to less than $1 million.
