Jungle.com cuts jobs after acquisition

Online reseller Jungle.com made redundancies last week following the completion of its acquisition of Software Warehouse.

Online reseller Jungle.com made redundancies last week following the completion of its acquisition of Software Warehouse.

Industry sources claimed that as many as 50 staff had been made redundant last week, but Steve Bennett, chief executive of Jungle, insisted that the cuts had only affected "a handful" of staff, primarily in the areas of customer services, finance and marketing.

"We've only just merged the two [Jungle.com and Software Warehouse], and when you have a merger you have duplication," said Bennett.

"Successful dotcoms need to become profitable quickly. We could have held on to the staff, but that would have meant we wouldn't have become profitable as quickly."

Bennet said the redundant staff had "taken the news very well", adding that they had all been allowed to retain their share options.

Jungle is still on track to become profitable by the end of the current financial year, he said, and the business currently derived half of its revenue from web-based sales.

Bennet refused to give a timetable for Jungle's flotation plans. "We'll do it when the market changes and the conditions are right," he said.

First appeared in Computer Reseller News