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By Deborah Schofield, 18 January 2001 09:30

NEWS MacBain is forfeiting his salary and share options on his 27 per cent stake in Trader for the next two years at an estimated personal non-cash cost of E4.6m (£2.94m). The company is to cut 275 jobs globally and close 15 of websites in a cost-cutting drive - saving a further E18m (£11.51m) a year. Trader is attempting to reposition itself as a traditional content company, rather than concentrating on internet growth. The restructuring, cited in the FT as 'the latest example of the savage change in sentiment towards the internet', was welcomed by investors. Shares in Trader, which have slumped sharply since flotation valued them at E30 (£19.2) last March, climbed quickly in Paris on receipt of the news yesterday... Further proof of the fickle times of technology is found in the Guardian's juxtaposition of results from US computer manufacturers Apple and IBM. IBM saw profit for the quarter rise 28 per cent to $2.7bn, $1.48 per share, beating analysts' expectations, with a six per cent increase in sales to $25.6bn. Rival Apple, however, reported its first quarterly loss in over three years, the colour of its iMac not sustaining it through grey times of economic slowdown. The company lost a net $247m, 73 cents a share, in the three months to December, compared to net profit of $183m for the same period a year previously. Sales more than halved. Apple, it claims, expects to return to profitability in this fiscal quarter... Alternative start-up telecoms operators are having to face up to the realities of operating in the current bleak financial condition, says the FT. Two of the most prominent players in the field, FirstMark and Viatel, are to take 'radical retrenchment measures' to ensure their cash 'lasts until a time when refinancing in easier'. FirstMark, which raised £600m from private equity and debt in an enthusiastic and newly-deregulated Europe last June, is to close its London headquarters, shelve plans to develop wireless internet services and lose CEO Tim Samples. The company, which aimed to become a pan-European provider of broadband internet access, will now concentrate largely on the German market to ensure its business model is fully financed until 2002. Viatel is parting company with over 30 per cent of its workforce, more than 600 staff, and bidding farewell to the majority of its consumer operations across Europe. The aim is to service corporate customers where it has already established networks - the UK, US, Switzerland and Belgium - and, of course, to tighten the purse strings so as not to watch its $1.3bn debt balloon beyond the hemisphere of manageability...