Women.com Cuts Workforce

Women.com has reduced its workforce by 25 percent.

About 85 jobs were eliminated Wednesday in an effort to reduce expenses,
align the company’s revenue with expenses and respond to current market
conditions, according to Marleen McDaniel, chairman and CEO of women.com.

“The streamlining of our business operations, among the toughest
decisions made by any company, reflects the need for women.com to remain
nimble in a fluctuating Internet community,” she said. “We are very
confident in the quality of our product, the future of our business and we
will focus our sales groups on the company’s core competitive advantage:
large, established accounts.”

The actions taken Wednesday are in line with announcements made last
month upon release of the company’s third-quarter results. The company’s
revenues during the third quarter were adversely impacted by a $1.7 million
revenue allowance charge for dotcom advertising business booked during the
third quarter that may prove to be uncollectable.

The problems in the dotcom advertising market, coupled with the
seasonality of advertising, contributed to the decline in advertising
revenue from the second quarter of 2000, according to McDaniel.

Further, total revenue for the third quarter was up 22 percent to $8.8
million over the third quarter of 1999, but declined from $12.3 million in
the second quarter of 2000. Pro forma net loss for the quarter was $18.5
million, or $0.39 per diluted share. This compared to a pro forma net loss
of $10.3 million, or $0.34 per diluted share for the same period a year ago.

Including stock based compensation, goodwill amortization, and loss on
investment, reported net loss for the third quarter was $29.9 million or
$0.64 per diluted share compared to a net loss of $17.0 million or $0.56 per
diluted share for the comparable quarter last year.

The goal is to move into 2001 as a strong, more flexible company, said
McDaniel. “We are positioned to leverage the positive fundamentals of our
business and our equity partners to drive growth and move us toward our
profitability targets,” she said.

The workforce reduction was the first since the company launched in 1992
and affected positions across the company.

The site — which focuses on programming, community, shopping and
personalized services — is listed among the 50 largest destinations on the
Internet, attracting more than 7.5 million visitors to its network each
month.

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