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Online ad network 24/7 Media has fired 100 employees in an effort to staunch its spending in the wake of a revenue warning. 24/7 says a weak ad market spurred the cost-cutting measure. The job cuts should save 24/7 $12 million. This latest round of firings brings the total layoffs at 24/7 to 300. Additionally, 24/7’s chief financial officer, C. Andrew Johns, has stepped down from his position. Stu Shaw, the company’s former senior vice president for finance and administration, is temporarily occupying the CFO slot. The company has reported that it expects to lose up to 49 cents a share for the fourth quarter, on revenues of $43 million to $45 million. Analysts had projected losses of 43 cents a share. The company says it expects to be profitable by the fourth quarter of the new fiscal year.
Yahoo: No more hate and
Nazi doodad sales
Internet portal Yahoo has announced that sales of hate material such as
Nazi memorabilia will be banned on its auction, shopping and classified ad
sites. To enforce the ban, Yahoo is installing software for culling
offensive goods before they can be listed for sale. Also, Yahoo is
teaching employees to inspect the site for hate material. Until now, Yahoo
relied on reports from third parties about offensive goods. The new policy
arrives after pressure from both domestic anti-hate groups such as the
Simon Wiesenthal Center and governments overseas. In France, selling or
displaying hate items is illegal. Because French web surfers could access
hate items via Yahoo, a French court fined the dot.com $13,000 a day until
it installed software for blocking the items from French eyes. Yahoo
denies that its new policy is a result of its legal problems in France.
The portal will also begin charging a fee for listing goods for sale.
Olympic bigs sue
pornsters' fake games site
Calling itself the "100 percent unofficial" site of the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City,
a web site with the URL slc2002.com has provoked a lawsuit
from the official keepers of the Olympic torch. The Salt Lake City
Organizing Committee and the U.S. Olympic Committee are suing Christine
Wallace, slc2002.com's creator, for tarnishing their image by
associating it with sex and gambling. While the site looks like an
innocuously amateurish attempt to cash in on Olympic interest, the lawsuit
contends that slc2002.com has at one time boasted an advertising link to a site,
called "Christine’s Love Connection," that offers racy screen
savers for free. Other links featured on the site have lead users to babe-displaying internet
gambling halls such as MVP Sportsbook. The site’s tamer offerings
include Olympics trivia and themed merchandise like mugs and T-shirts.
Wallace’s partners, who are Australian, successfully fought
cybersquatting charges for a comparable web site, sydney2000.com. On top
of the lawsuit, the U.S.-based Olympics committees have referred the
dispute to the International Olympic Committee, since slc2002.com is
registered in Australia.
WebMD and News Corp. nix partnership
Health site WebMD and media conglomerate
News Corp. have called off a pair of joint ventures. For one, WebMD has
pulled out of The Health Network, a new cable channel the two companies were
developing. WebMD is ceding its 50 percent stake in The Health Channel to
News Corp. Also, WebMD has backed out of an international joint venture it
had set up with News Corp.; again, News Corp. will take over the venture.
In exchange for WebMD’s pulling out, News Corp. will receive 156,000
shares of WebMD preferred stock, plus a warrant to buy 3 million shares of
common stock in WebMD. This isn’t the only partnership that WebMD has
dissolved lately as part of its overall restructuring. Last week, WebMD
called off an e-business partnership with DuPont.
Another scrapped
venture: NBCi, Asiacontent
Another planned partnership that looks less good in the harsh light of the
new year is the deal between NBC Internet and Asiacontent.com. Announced a
year ago, the two companies had intended to create local Asian versions of
NBC Internet portals. NBCi was to have owned 35 percent and Asiacontent 65
percent. The companies say that the plan’s cancellation is in keeping
with their current strategies. NBC Internet says it will concentrate on
its U.S. consumer internet operations, while Asiacontent will focus upon
on its "internet solutions" business. In mid-December,
Asiacontent agreed to unload its interest in seven CNET Asia web sites to
CNET Networks for $6 million.
Subaru site
tracks maintenance for car owners
While the auto industry wonders whether the web
is a sort of
extended sales brochure or an online showroom, one car maker has opted for
a less flashy but perhaps more useful approach. Operating under the assumption
that remembering tune-ups can be difficult, Subaru has launched a site,
MySubaru.com, where owners of 1999-2001 Foresters, Legacies, Outbacks and
the like can track maintenance on their vehicles by accessing a database
of VIN numbers. The service is available to anyone who buys a Subaru
starting this month. Other owners of late-model Subaru will be able to
sign up sometime during the first quarter. The database will be updated as
service shops and dealers maintain their service records and databases. So
far, roughly 20 percent of Subaru customers who received information about
the program have signed up for the service--a turnout nearly twice what
Subaru expected.
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