eTour Undergoes Major Restructuring, Lays Off Half of Staff

Atlanta-based eTour has not only ousted its co-founder and CEO, but has laid off about 50 percent of its entire work force today.

Peter Robson has been named acting CEO after Roger Barnette, one of eTour’s founders, resigned.

Donna Lachance, the company’s chief operating officer who joined the company in August, also resigned. CFO Jim FitzGerald will take on the extra duties of COO, and co-founder Jim Lanzone has been promoted to the positions of president and CMO.

Lanzone said that the 55 employees let go in today’s major restructuring were offered generous severance packages. Thirty-four eTour employees were let go in January, and the company maintained their position of no further layoffs until today.

Privately-held eTour has made efforts to become profitible, and this latest round of restructuring for the company is another move towards that end — which comes despite having increased revenues by 600 percent last year.

New CEO Robson was senior vice president of business development and client services for VerticalOne before joining eTour. Previous to his VerticalOne position, Robson was senior vice president of strategic development Harte-Hanks Direct.

Calls placed to eTour were not immediately returned.

The Internet Web search service has previously said it hopes to reach profitability by the second quarter of this year. The company will now have to do so with its remaining 55 employees.