By Ottawa Business Journal Staff
Fri, May 14, 2004 8:00 AM EST
Local startup SiberCore Technologies has chopped about two-thirds of its workforce, but denies that means it is in trouble.
Responding to a report from online industry publication Light Reading, SiberCore CEO Peter Becke confirmed Thursday that the company did cut about 20 engineering staff in early April, reducing its headcount to about a dozen.
The cuts are the latest in a long line of staff reductions that have reduced its workforce from about 80 two years ago.
Becke said the latest cuts came from a decision to focus on sales, marketing and support of existing products, rather than continue burning through its cash reserves with new product development.
Becke told the Ottawa Citizen that Sibercore still has about $8 million of the $20 million round of VC it received in December 2002.
SiberCore has raised $75 million since its founding six years ago. Becke is one of the many former Nortel executives to end up at the helm of a local startup and joined Sibercore in June 2002.
Becke emphasized the company is not in trouble and pointed out that shipments of its chips for use in telecom and network hardware have increased by 50 per cent a year for the past three years. It boasts major multinationals such as Cisco, Hitachi and Fujitsu among its customers.
However, he acknowledged that the selling price for its chips has dropped dramatically. Increased product shipments have failed to yield significant increases to revenue.
Fri, May 14, 2004 8:00 AM EST
Local startup SiberCore Technologies has chopped about two-thirds of its workforce, but denies that means it is in trouble.
Responding to a report from online industry publication Light Reading, SiberCore CEO Peter Becke confirmed Thursday that the company did cut about 20 engineering staff in early April, reducing its headcount to about a dozen.
The cuts are the latest in a long line of staff reductions that have reduced its workforce from about 80 two years ago.
Becke said the latest cuts came from a decision to focus on sales, marketing and support of existing products, rather than continue burning through its cash reserves with new product development.
Becke told the Ottawa Citizen that Sibercore still has about $8 million of the $20 million round of VC it received in December 2002.
SiberCore has raised $75 million since its founding six years ago. Becke is one of the many former Nortel executives to end up at the helm of a local startup and joined Sibercore in June 2002.
Becke emphasized the company is not in trouble and pointed out that shipments of its chips for use in telecom and network hardware have increased by 50 per cent a year for the past three years. It boasts major multinationals such as Cisco, Hitachi and Fujitsu among its customers.
However, he acknowledged that the selling price for its chips has dropped dramatically. Increased product shipments have failed to yield significant increases to revenue.
