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Razorfish cuts more staff
Microsoft's online ad agency Razorfish is slashing staff again. The agency laid off 70 employees yesterday in its West coast offices of Seattle, Portland, San Francisco and Los Angeles. The job cuts follow two other rounds of layoffs last year, in October and December.
Razorfish spokeswoman Sally O'Dowd had this to say about yesterday's cuts:
The workforce reduction is a difficult but necessary decision to effectively manage Razorfish’s business through a challenging economic climate — some key clients in the financial and tech sectors have cut their budgets.
This isn’t pleasant for anyone. We care greatly about our people and are working to ease the transition by, for example, offering providing outplacement assistance to affected employees.
Meanwhile, the net impact to our other clients is anticipated to be minimal. Indeed, despite challenging times, many clients continue to invest in digital marketing because it is measurable and delivers a higher return on their marketing spend. Our teams are fully staffed and we are prepared to meet our clients’ needs now and in the months ahead.
The latest round of layoffs represent about 4 percent of Razorfish's total U.S. work force. Following the job cuts, the agency has 1,570 U.S. employees and 630 international staff.
There has been persistent speculation that Microsoft is looking to unload Razorfish, which it acquired as part of its $6 billion purchase of aQuantive in 2007. In a November interview with TechFlash, Razorfish CEO Clark Kokich batted down rumors of a sale, but didn't rule out the possibility.
About Todd Bishop
Todd Bishop is co-founder and managing editor of TechFlash. He has covered Microsoft and the technology industry for more than five years, most recently as a daily newspaper reporter and blogger based in Seattle.
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