From the Radio and Internet Newsletter:
"Live 365 lays off 22; former VP fuels rumor of firm's demise."
http://www.kurthanson.com/HTM-RAIN/NewsArchives/0701/070501.htm
Live365.com let go 22 staff members on Monday, a move which initiated a flurry of rumor and speculation about the company's health and future. E-mails from several RAIN readers, as well as postings on various Internet message boards, indicated that the Foster City, CA-based company was going out of business.
Senior VP/Communications Alan Wallace confirmed to RAIN publisher Kurt Hanson late Tuesday that the company had indeed reduced staff to 58 in a cost-cutting measure, but denied that the company's demise is imminent. The layoffs were spread across several departments and levels.
As word of the layoffs first surfaced, a rumor that the company was, in fact, closing its doors began to spread, apparently fueled by a mass-e-mailed letter allegedly written by former VP/Strategic Development and Label Relations and layoff victim John Schenk.
In the e-mail, reportedly sent to business contacts on Tuesday, Schenk wrote, "Much to my dismay, Live365 is closing it's doors. In an unfortunate surprise, our investors have chosen to discontinue funding our operations. Because of grim market conditions and negative stereotypes affecting online music companies, the possibilities for attaining funding from elsewhere have also proved fruitless. (Not a big surprise to most)."
Wallace insisted to RAIN that Live365.com was neither shutting down nor losing its funding. "Costs forced us to let go of 22 people," Wallace said. "We hope to be able to hire 21 of them back."
CTO Peter Rothman, also a victim of the staff reduction, wrote in a post to the Live365 community message board, "As of yesterday evening I was told that I would no longer be part of Live365, and that the direction of the company would be changing...I have to apologize for some of the recent changes such as the addition of pop up ads which I have always opposed. I failed all of you by not fighting harder against some of these 'necessary evils' which are in the end just plain evil."
It's not difficult to imagine that the message boards at F***edCompany.com were buzzing shortly after news of the downsizing leaked. Keeping in mind that postings in such forums can range from coherent and thoughtful to mindless ranting, we culled what we thought were a few appropriate points. Regardless of whether Live365.com is really in trouble, certain critiques of the company's business model and approach warrant consideration:
-----Original Message-----
From: Gen Kanai gen@kanai.net
Sent: Tue, 03 Jul 2001 16:51:25 -0400
To: deepness@yahoogroups.com, acid-jazz@ucsd.edu
Subject: [deepness] Fwd: goodbye live365
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