AltaVista Making Another Major Cut in Its Work Force

Internet search pioneer AltaVista Co. on Tuesday announced another shake up in its struggle to survive--trimming its rapidly dwindling work force about 30%, shuttering an office in Irvine and hiring a new chief executive.

James Barnett, 43, most recently president of San Francisco-based MyFamily.com, will take over at AltaVista nearly a year after Rod Schrock resigned as chief executive just as the Internet economy began to collapse.

AltaVista’s owner, Andover, Mass.-based venture capitalist CMGI Inc., also is a major investor in MyFamily.com, one of the few online companies that has been able to build a significant subscription business on the Web.

Reflecting the grim prospects facing AltaVista and other fallen Internet stars, Barnett’s tenure begins with a purge of about 160 of the Palo Alto-based company’s 500 employees. Nearly 80 jobs will be eliminated in the Irvine office, which housed the company’s failed online comparison shopping service as well as some general and administrative functions.

It marks AltaVista’s third mass layoff in the last year. AltaVista’s payroll peaked at about 950 workers last summer.

Barnett said the latest job cuts should be enough to let AltaVista stay in business until it starts to make money.

CMGI’s stock closed Tuesday at $1.21, up 8 cents a share, in Nasdaq trading.