FairMarket cuts staff

Auction service provider FairMarket laid off 38 employees, or 35 percent of its work force, on Wednesday in response to lowered revenue expectations, the company announced. In its earnings report last month, FairMarket said it expected its 2001 revenues to be down as much as 20 percent from last year. Although the cuts affected all departments in the Woburn, Mass.-based company, they did not affect any executives, said Janet Smith, the company's chief financial officer.

FairMarket, which developed auction sites for Microsoft and Dell Computer, laid off 35 workers in October and 40 workers in May. Concurrent with the May layoffs, FairMarket shut down its Australian office and Chief Executive Eileen Rudden resigned. Earlier this month, FairMarket customer Egghead.com filed for bankruptcy, but Smith said that move didn't directly cause the layoffs.