Sweet Chin Music - Pandora Laying off 15% of Staff

Time once again for sweet chin music at Pandora, but hopefully this stops the fat lady from singing too soon.  My favorite online music site has been through the tough times of the dot com bust, and most recently the tyranny of those damn record companies.  So I am confident they will come out successfully on the other side. 

But for now, Tim Westergren, Joe Kennedy and team are letting go off 20 of their 140 staff members. 

Pandora does have a load of analysts, well versed in music, some extensively and classically trained, who analyze songs and classify them by very detailed multiple descriptive categories.  My guess is the majority of layoffs will affect these folks.   I do have to admit, my Pandora radio stations don't play too many new songs. 

Their sales staff is also supposed to be doing well, and I do see a lot of ads now.  Thats good - keep bringing in the revenues, guys!

Legally Laid Off - HellerEhrman Shutting Down?

About a week earlier, Silicon Valley-based law firm HellerEhrman had started shutting down, laying off everyone.   Given that HellerEhrman had grown to quite a position of strength over the 2001 - 2007 period, this is a bit hard. 

Their website now seems to reflect that they've completely exited.  The screenshot below is all you will see if you go to http://www.hellerehrman.com/en/.  

The Placement Opportunities link takes you to a page with a list of firms hiring, as well as placement firms.

Poignantly funny - check out the Disclaimer they have on the Placement Opportunities page.  Yes, this used to be a law firm.