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Deadpools, layoff trackers and [expletive deleted]company.com deathwatches seem to be back in fashion in the Valley, even before the ripples of recession hit the technology sector.
Techcrunch launched its job cuts tracker today as Zillow.com became the latest Web 2.0 company to announce layoffs.
In a blog post, Richard Barton, chief executive of the real-estate site, said the 25 per cent cut in his workforce was necessary because it “had no choice but to securely batten down the hatches as we sail into a major economic storm.”
This despite rapidly growing revenues and a 42 per cent increase in traffic over the past year, he added.
Web companies appear to be taking to heart the advice in one slide of the much publicised presentation by VC firm Sequoia Capital to its companies on October 7.
It showed a graph where Company B making sharp cuts in expenses this month, ahead of any trouble to come, would have greater longevity than Company A, which allowed expenses to continue to grow and then made a series of cuts at a later stage in the cycle.
This latter pattern amounted to a death spiral, said Sequoia. The accompanying image of a whirlpool with skull and crossbones seems to have had the desired effect.
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