Update: after several readers commented that the rumors SuSE
denied are, indeed true, and LWN asserted that their coverage is
accurate, a followup call to both the US offices of SuSE and Ms.
Von Wedel revealed that while no one at the company is willing to
comment further on whether layoffs are happening or not, some
employees are being moved to a different office. Ms. Von Wedel said
she could provide no information on layoffs. We’ll continue to
cover the story as it unfolds. -mph
Second Update: SuSE’s President, Volker Wiegand, has
confirmed the layoffs:
LinuxGram has the story.
By Michael Hall
A spokesperson for Germany’s SuSE says rumors circulating
regarding layoffs at the company are “totally rubbish,” and that
despite a generally depressed technology market and the
well-publicized struggles some Linux companies have faced over the
past year, the company is actually looking to expand its operation
in the United States.
Xenia Von Wedel of the Terpin Group, a California-based PR firm
and press contact for SuSE dismissed an unattributed story
appearing on Linux Weekly
News today that her client had layed off an unspecified number
of U.S. employees as “just gossip, bad gossip” despite the LWN
report and several calls she’d already handled today on the
stories.
“People think there’s something going on because all the other
[tech companies] are laying people off,” said Von Wedel, who went
on to note that at the moment, the company plans to open a New York
marketing and sales office this year and is still pressing ahead
with plans to make an initial public offering (IPO) of stock at an
unspecified time in the future.
Von Wedel acknowledged the difficulty in getting a handle on the
company since they aren’t a publicly-traded firm and “never have
been too big in the United States,” focusing instead on
services-oriented deals with large, established hardware companies
like IBM and Compaq.
Von Wedel also said that despite a recent firing of a single
employee, SuSE has not, to her knowledge released anybody else, and
that the company is in the process of adding office space in its
current location.