Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Racepoint points 20% of staff to the door

By Efrain Viscarolasaga

Waltham-based technology public relations firm Racepoint Group today cut 20 percent of its workforce, according to company sources.

The layoffs came across all four of the company’s offices — Waltham, San Francisco, Washington D.C. and London — and included a “handful” of employees at Digital Influence Group, a related media property also owned by Racepoint Group parent company W2 Inc. of Waltham.

W2 was formed in 2004 by industry veteran Larry Weber, founder of Weber Group and Weber Shandwick Worldwide.

While sources confirmed the layoffs, W2 senior vice president Jackie Lustig would not reveal the number of people involved. Lustig did not offer a comment or reason behind the layoffs, but implied the decision was rooted in the current economic downturn.

Racepoint Group and Digital Influence Group provide public relations and social media consulting services across a variety of industries, predominantly high tech. The firm’s past and present clients include well-known names such as Digg Inc., FireFox and SAP America Inc., as well as local companies, including Cambridge-based BBN Technologies Corp. spinout EveryZing Inc., Sonus Networks Inc., EnerNOC Inc. and Nicholas Negroponte’s non-profit One Laptop Per Child.