Altavista slashes workforce - UK escapes

Altavista UK has escaped the massive redundancies announced on Friday by its parent company.

The US internet portal said today that it is cutting its workforce by 25 per cent as part of "recent steps to achieve near-term profitability". However, a spokeswoman told vnunet.com that Europe would be unaffected by the job cuts, which will hit mainly US employees in Altavista's 1000-strong workforce.

Altavista's UK managing director left the ISP at the end of last month following the embarrassing failure of the company's unmetered internet access service.

Altavista also laid off around 40 employees in the US earlier this year.

Friday's announcement was made as part of a statement which detailed the company's roadmap. The strategy includes establishing a third-generation search service and the foundation of an information marketing services organisation.

Rod Schrock, Altavista's president and chief executive, said: "While many of these business decisions have been difficult, we are now in a position to unleash our search engine expertise with a clear, singular focus to penetrate every layer of the search market for both consumers and businesses."