Buy.com says bye-bye to 125 staff

Troubled online retailer Buy.com has cut 42 per cent of its US workforce.

Buy.com axed the positions as part of a bid to cut $70m from its cost base. The company expects sales for 2001 to be as much as 26 per cent down on last year's $787.7m figure. Buy.com's French and German operations were among the first in Europe to be affected by dot-com doom. Australia and Canada soon followed, and the sale of their UK operation to the John Lewis Partnership left the US as buy.com's last independent business. Buy.com also filed a lawsuit against the US PGA Golf tour organising body, seeking $45m damages for violating a sponsorship agreement. The PGA tour denies the allegations.