Tech firm lays off 21 more

ILX Lightwave laid off 21 Bozeman-based employees Wednesday, bringing the number of
local workers released by the company in the past year to 125.

By JACOB GOLDSTEIN Chronicle Staff Writer

The move was the high-tech company’s fourth round of layoffs since June 2001. But according
to CEO Larry Johnson, letting people go has not gotten any easier.

"I don’t know if this is the kind of thing you get used to, or want to get used to," Johnson said
Wednesday. "It’s not a normal way that any business likes to operate."

Wednesday’s layoffs included eight engineers, whose salaries averaged about $53,000, and
nine manufacturing employees, whose salaries averaged just under $30,000, according to ILX
Human Resources Manager Annette Cyr.

ILX builds equipment for companies that make fiber-optics components. The company grew
rapidly during the fiber-optics boom of the late 1990s, ballooning to almost 300 employees at
its peak.

But ILX was hit hard by the economic downturn that began in early 2001 and intensified
following the Sept. 11 attacks.

In an attempt to stay profitable, the company laid off 121 employees last summer, 73 of whom
were based in Bozeman. But revenues continued to decline and the company started losing
money late last year, according to Johnson.

Despite 31 layoffs in January, the company continued losing money this year. Johnson said
Wednesday’s layoffs, which leave the Bozeman-based company with a worldwide staff of 95,
should return the organization to the break-even point.

ILX’s revenues have stabilized, but are down 60 percent from where they were a year ago, he
said. The company is bringing in as much money now as it did in 1998, before its period of
explosive growth.

"It’s tough on all of us to see that we’re having to go backward," Johnson said.

Alicia Bradshaw, executive director of the Gallatin Development Council, said Wednesday that
ILX was not the only local company laying off workers.

Gallatin County’s unemployment, which has traditionally hovered around 2 percent, has been
at or above 3 percent for several months, according to Bradshaw.

Meanwhile, Bradshaw said, a few local high-tech companies such as Zoot Enterprises and
LigoCyte Pharmaceuticals have been growing.

"We’ve had a little bit of a schizophrenic economy," she said.

On an optimistic note, Johnson said his company’s small size makes it well positioned to take
advantage of "the little niches that are still growing in this overall gloom.

"We want to be growing," the CEO said. "We want to be a place that people want to work in
Bozeman."

Jacob Goldstein is at [email protected]

http://newspapers.mywebpal.com/partners/311/public/news306017.html