Examining the Rumors at Macromedia : A Special Report

by Eron Cohen, Staff Writer

As ColdFusion developers we have a vested interest in what happens to Macromedia as a company. These are hard times for technology companies, and in spite of the extreme popularity of their products, these may not be the best times for Macromedia. And in bad times, cutbacks are expected. Members of the CF-Partners, CF-Talk and CF-Community mailing lists are probably aware that there are rumors sloshing around about some recent layoffs at Macromedia.

Fusion Authority tried to investigate this by contacting a Macromedia spokesperson. Unfortunately, we were told that they are unable to make any official statements denying or confirming what’s been said on the mailing lists, so we were forced to look for other sources. One list member from the CF-Partners list commented that he was in Training at the time and "almost 50% of training" was laid off. According to reliable sources inside of Macromedia who spoke on the condition of anonymity, that isn’t quite true but the results are the same: The training department had a lot of consultants who basically will not have their contracts renewed. Other departments were hit much harder. For instance, sources say Macromedia intends to change its selling strategies; therefore it recently got rid of a large portion of its sales force. The marketing department has also been shaken up as some VIPs recently left the company. The consulting department of Macromedia was hit particularly hard. The finance and human resources departments were among the hardest hit—for all intents and purposes, these will no longer exist. We were also told by a separate source that the layoffs indeed did happen and that there will be more in the next few days.

Although none of the above can be officially confirmed, it definitely leaves questions that hopefully Macromedia can answer for us soon. Although Allaire had imperfections, they did a good job of knowing who their customers were, and they seemed to take pretty good care of their employees. Although there is no doubt that there was a lot of dead weight in a company the size of Macromedia, they have probably let go of a lot of quality people. Of course “business is business” and “money is the bottom line” when you have to answer to stockholders, but as ColdFusion developers we may have some reason for concern. Is Macromedia going to keep our interests in mind? Are they going to know us as well as the Allaire people did? What is their new sales strategy and will it bring them more profits, or make matters worse?

A look around the Macromedia investor relations website (http://www.macromedia.com/macromedia/ir/) reveals that the layoffs may have been expected. For instance, the report from last quarter mentions the possibility of some cutbacks. On Thursday, July 19th, when Macromedia’s Q1 results are phoned in on a conference call with CEO Rob Burgess and CFO Betsey Nelson, they are probably going to have to answer some difficult questions. You can listen in with RealAudio starting at 5:30pm EST on http://www.macromedia.com/macromedia/ir/macr/quarter/conference_call.html.

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