InfoUSA To Cut 250 Jobs

Database marketer InfoUSA will cut about 250 positions in a move to bring the company’s expenditures in line with revenue, according to reports Thursday.

The Omaha, Na.-based firm, which had 1,985 employees at the end of last quarter, will also reportedly shutter its entire VideoYellowPages subsidiary.

Reports indicate that most of the positions slated for elimination are from the company’s Omaha office, with its New York, New Jersey, California and Canada offices also being affected.

According to reports, the reductions are taking place to cover Internet ventures and marketing efforts that failed to perform as expected.

Omaha-based VideoYellowPages functioned similarly to other online yellow page listings, like Verizon’s SuperPages, except that it could also include streaming video ads. The concept was supposed to allow local businesses nationwide to repurpose existing television creatives, but, as of its reported closing, it had only been rolled out in San Francisco and Omaha.

The move isn’t without precedent. In November, InfoUSA began hacking at VideoYellowPages, cutting some 10 posts. The month prior, the company cut 50 positions overall.

The company recently posted disappointing third quarter results, with a net quarterly loss of $0.15 per share, or $7.4 million, on sales of $75.8 million. A year ago, the company posted $0.02 per-share earnings, on sales of $75.1 million.

In its most recent guidance, the company said that operating costs for its Internet divisions — which includes infoUSA.com, BusinessCreditUSA.com and ListBazaar.com in addition to VideoYellowPages.com — were growing faster than sales. For the third quarter, net sales for the four Internet divisions increased $4 million, or 101 percent from the same period in 1999, although total operating costs for the units increased $9.3 million or 363 percent from the same period.

The company did not break out specific income and costs for the units, although it did say at the time that marketing costs specific to the Internet initiatives represented the chief source for the cost increases.

It was not immediately available how much the company would save from the reorganization, although the company had about $23.2 million on hand at the time of its last filing.

Spokespeople from InfoUSA did not return calls by press time.