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Egghead.com Inc. said it is firing 178 people, or 29% of the company’s work force, to cut costs as the Internet seller of computers and technology products seeks to turn a profit by its fourth quarter. The company is firing 21 full-time, temporary and contract workers at its Menlo Park, Calif., headquarters and 157 in Vancouver, Wash., spokeswoman Joanne Sperans Hartzell said.

* NEC Corp., Japan’s biggest personal computer maker, said it’s eliminating about 700 jobs at a semiconductor plant in Northern California because demand for chips has slowed. NEC will have about 900 employees at the plant in Roseville after the reductions, company spokesman Mark Pearce said. The company plans to reduce production of dynamic random access memory chips, or DRAMs, at the plant because demand has slowed, Pearce said. The plant will boost production of more sophisticated communications chips.