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WorldCom Cuts 3,700
Things are going from bad to worse for WorldCom. The telecommunications company last week announced it is cutting 3,700 jobs from WorldCom Group, its business data and telecom arm.
In one sense, the job cuts are good news. The day before the announcement, published reports indicated WorldCom was preparing to lay off as much as 10 percent of its 75,000-employee work force.
The layoffs are U.S.-based staff positions, company officials said, constituting 6 percent of WorldCom Groups work force.
With this years revenue growth projected to be in the “mid-single-digit range,” WorldCom said the layoffs were necessary to cut costs.
Privacy Group Sues Ridge
Epic is asking the courts for help in finding out about the federal governments plans for a national ID card.
The Electronic Privacy Information Center last week sued the Office of Homeland Security and its director, Tom Ridge, for access to documents related to the ID card program.
On March 20, EPIC requested, under the Freedom of Information Act, copies of any material concerning the national ID program and other national-security-related initiatives.
But in its suit, EPIC said Ridges office had not responded to the request within the required 10 days.
EPIC officials also sent a letter about the suit to Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., and Minority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss. EPIC is concerned that the proposed ID program would be an invasion of privacy.
BlueArc Names Rattazzi CEO
NAS storage systems vendor BlueArc has appointed a new president and CEO.
Gianluca Rattazzi, who has been chairman of the companys board of directors since February 2000, will take over the reins of BlueArc and keep his post as board chairman.
Rattazzi replaces Enrico Pesatori, the former president and CEO, who is now vice chairman of the board for the company, which makes network-attached storage systems.