Razorfish cuts West Coast staff

In late October, we reported that Microsoft's Razorfish unit cut 40 employees at offices in New York. Now, we've heard that the cuts have hit the West Coast operations of the interactive Web design company.

Thirty six employees recently lost jobs at offices in Seattle, Portland, San Francisco and Los Angeles due to the effects of the economic recession, according to company spokeswoman Sally O'Dowd. Seattle-based Razorfish, which was acquired by Microsoft last year as part of its $6 billion purchase of aQuantive, now employs more than 2,200 workers. Just three of the cuts occurred in Seattle, O'Dowd said.

In a statement, O'Dowd said it was a "hard decision" to let go "strong and talented people" who helped the company grow over the past few years.

"Unfortunately, the economic crisis is having a dramatic effect on our business as several of our clients are in hard-hit categories," she said. "Our layoffs were a direct result of difficulties facing some West regional clients." She said that laid off employees would receive job search assistance. O'Dowd also noted that the company will invest in other parts of the business in order to reinforce "teams to grow our recent wins."

Rumors have circulated for months that Microsoft may be looking to sell the Razorfish business, though CEO Clark Kokich told TechFlash last month that there was nothing in the works. However, he didn't rule out the possibility down the road.

"That doesn't mean that two to three to four years from now, it might not happen," Kokich told reporter Eric Engleman.

With 20 offices around the globe, Razorfish helps clients such as Best Buy, The New York Times, Levi's and others build digital media campaigns and interactive Web sites.