News Wrap: AltaVista, eToys, ONdigital, ADSL

US-based portal and search engine AltaVista is to axe 200 staff in a bid to cut costs and improve its profitability.

AltaVista, which cancelled its initial public offering last week citing poor market conditions, has blamed the cuts on poor online advertising demand. The company said most of the staff cuts would be at its Palo Alto, California headquarters.

"AltaVista has not been immune to the softness in advertising," AltaVista executive adviser Peter Mills said in a statement. The company, which also cut its workforce last year, said its worldwide head count is now 600.

eToys unable to pay bills

US online toy retailer eToys, which closes its European operations from today [Friday], said it has been unable to pay some of its creditors.

In December the etailer warned that global sales had fallen short of targets and that it had enough money to continue only until the end of March.

But according to reports, eToys has stopped paying some creditors and one temporary staffing agency claims it is owed $2m. eToys is also struggling to cope with last minute sales orders from its UK website, which closes today.

Redstone plans early DSL launch

Telecoms provider Redstone is to bring forward the launch of its high-speed internet access service after reaching an agreement with BT.

BT is to allow Redstone to install its DSL equipment in street cabinets outside the BT local exchanges ahead of the industry schedule date of 1 July for local loop unbundling.

Redstone said services are planned to be available in April this year in Portsmouth, followed by Southampton, Newbury, Nottingham and Cambridge.

ONdigital makes Sky complaint

Pay TV group ONdigital has lodged a complaint with the Office of Fair Trading against what it claims is an abuse of market dominance by its rival, BSkyB.

ONdigital claims that BSkyB raised the rates for its premium channels at the start of this year without notfiying ONdigital.

BSkyB is already under investigation by the OFT over its supply of wholesale pay-TV to its competitors. Earlier this week ONdigital said that it met its one million subscriber target for 2000.