(The Industry Standard)

Altavista, the search engine majority-owned by CMGI, is firing its country managers in the main European markets. The firing of executives in the UK, Germany, France, Italy, and the Netherlands, first reported by the online edition of Financial Times Deutschland, was confirmed by several independent sources close to the company.

Kirsten Ford, Altavista?s European marketing manager, confirmed that "Altavista has decided to reorganize its European sales structure". She added, "we?re not denying that some individuals will be affected. We are still working through the details with those individuals."

Ford confirmed that CMGI will also close its offices in the Netherlands and Sweden. She denied there would be more staff cuts in the four remaining offices in the UK, Germany, France and Italy. Altavista currently operates search engines customized for 15 European countries from its six offices.

Altavista went online in 1995 as the first full-text Internet search engine, under the hood of computer manufacturer Digital Equipment. Its status as a technology leader was founded on features such as multilingual search and its famous translation engine Babelfish. However, Altavista has met increasing competition from the likes of Google and Inktomi.

CMGI bought Altavista from Compaq in 1999, after Digital Equipment itself was acquired by Compaq. CMGI has tried different strategies with the veteran Internet site. Only last year, CMGI gave up its attempt to turn Altavista into a full-fledged portal, instead putting more marketing power behind the licensing of Altavista?s search software.

CMGI last year made a staggering $2.6 billion loss on sales of $343 million, the bulk of the sales coming from Altavista?s advertising clients. It has announced to sell up to seven of the twelve companies it holds. Altavista insiders think it?s likely to be looking for strategic investors, possibly portals without their own search software, such as MSN or Terra Lycos.

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