Late last week, approximately one third of the staff at Gear.com received pink slips. In addition, the company’s board forced Ken Blue to resign, replacing him with Marketing VP Kevin Quigley and CFO Joe Kenny, who will act as co-presidents, while keeping their previous titles.
Seattle.internet.com caught up with Quigley to discuss the layoffs.
According to Quigley, both moves come as a result of the restructuring of Gear’s financial outlook.
“We have decided to reduce our growth rate for 2001 to approximately 100%, down from the 400-500% growth trajectory we are on now for 2000. Slower growth requires a smaller team,” says Quigley.
The co-president emphasized that the layoffs were not the result of a financial crisis.
“Although Gear was not forced into this restructuring due to lack of cash, Gear believes that planned growth is a better strategy than the land grab strategy that seems to be driving other dotcoms,” says Quigley. “Even without the restructuring, Gear had the resources to last beyond the 2000 holiday season. With the restructuring Gear can be opportunistic about it next round of financing.”
The layoffs took place fairly evenly across the company, other than customer
Service, where no reductions in force occurred. According to Quigley, all team members that were let go were given a severance package, the details of which remain undisclosed.