Layoffs, Economy, Boston

Reported Job Cuts at NameMedia, WSI Add to Week’s Total

Wade Roush 11/21/08

Our apologies to all Xconomy readers for ending the week on a downer, but it’s time for a roundup of the week’s tech layoff news around Boston.

On Wednesday, Cambridge, MA-based Akamai said it would cut 110 jobs, or about 7 percent of its workforce.

On Thursday Luke reported news of 30 more layoffs at Cambridge, MA-based CombinatoRx, leaving the beleaguered biotech with about 55 people, one third the company’s size prior to news earlier this month that its main arthritis drug had failed in clinical trials.

Earlier today we reported that the healthcare unit of Royal Philips NV, headquartered in Andover, MA, will cut about 1,600 people from its staff worldwide, with about 100 of those cuts occurring in Andover.

Xconomy has also received unconfirmed reports about layoffs at two more local companies. WSI, an Andover, MA, company that provides weather information to media, energy, and aviation firms, cut 28 workers or about 10 percent of its staff on November 13, according to one source. And NameMedia, a Waltham, MA company that auctions (and sells advertising on) parked Internet domains, cut 30 workers on November 11, according to another report. We are attempting to obtain confirmation of these job cuts, but at press time no one at either company had responded to our inquiries.

We’ve updated our Boston Tech Layoff Tracker with the latest numbers.

Wade Roush is Xconomy's chief correspondent. You can e-mail him at wroush@xconomy.com, call him at (617) 252-7323, or follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/wroush.