Fast sacks 60 employees

Fast faces serious financial difficulties

[perkoch]

Definitely not a near-death experience a la Excite, but all the same:

http://www.pandia.com/sw-2001/50-fast.html

[caine]

Interesting read,

The company seen the future of the false economy as promising, .com blues.

[PageCount]

Hi Per

I like the title (browser) tag of that story: "The financial woes of Fats". Perhaps the company is merely right-sizing :).

Also, perhaps one of Thomas Fussell's equals should remind him that when we look about us, we see not reality but ourselves? He labels Brodin "lazy" and, in April, admitted to having hired several "complete idiots", some of whom were being fired. Why not get rid of all of them?

His candor, though refreshing, must certainly reflect something of FAST's internal dynamics...

[grnidone]

It was not clear, however, if FAST was actually having financial difficulties, or if they are 'streamlining' before they *really* start to hurt.

It said the public was 'losing faith', but nothing more in the story indicated there was actually financial difficulties...just that FAST was 'cutting the fat'.

PerKoch, I don't know if you have been properly welcomed to the forums, so I'll do it now.

Welcome to WmW.

-G

[wasmith]

I think the french have a word for it. But, none the less, seems if they could wait this long to downsize then they may not be in such a bad situation. I may be wrong but i think a few newspapers have downsized because of the drop in advertizing dollars recently. Newpapers have seen these waves in ad dollars before so they have no fear of "D".

[perkoch]

Thank you Grnidone!

I certainly don't think Fast is done with, yet. Like most .com's though they are facing tough times.

Some more info:

In the second quarter the company entered a deficit of USD 9.5 million. At the same time the company had an equity of USD 15 million. They will loose these reserves if they don't do something, quick.

The main problem is that Investors don't believe in the company. Fast entered the Oslo stock exchange in June this year, and the price has fallen continously (from NOK 12 to approx. NOK 5). One reason may be the controversial leaders of Opticom. Opticom owns one third of Fast.

The fact is that Fast has developed some valuable technology. Lycos is now using Fast on nearly all its site worldwide, which is an important victory for Fast.

There is reason to believe that Fast will try to get access to other search portals as well, especially those that are powered by Inktomi today. It seems Fast is planning a search engine future dominated by two giants world wide: Google and Fast.

This fall Fast will start using its new and larger search engine index, containing 1.8 billion pages. That does not necessarily mean that the search results will be more relevant, but the psychological effect is important.

All in all this should bode well for Fast -- if they are able to solve their financial problems that is.

[Slow]

Take it from someone who knows - FAST is dying, and will not last out the year. Morale there is at an all-time low, the money is almost gone, and everyone is out of ideas. Need proof?

Check this out:
[fast.no...]

This "product" is nothing more than their Video Transfer java software that they failed to unload this summer. They had been planning to sell it to someone, but apparently there were no takers.

And what ever happened to "PartnerSite"? Still waiting on that one...

[JamesR]

They should try selling their keyword database for a subscription fee.