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December 17th, 2007 at 6:37 pm

Failing biometrics company Pay By Touch has shed 250 employees in the last “couple months,” COO Eula Adams said on a call for shareholders today. Of that 250, Adams said new management “took out” 90 employees in the last couple of weeks. The cuts came to “non-core” Pay By Touch initiatives in “healthcare, online, government,” Adams said.

All of it confirms a rumor posted by a commenter a few weeks back. “Rumor has it that TODAY IS LAYOFF DAY! Again!”

Thanks for weathering the storm where we did not pay you for six weeks! Sorry for that month we still OWE you! uhm, yeah and we won’t be paying you out when you go, and we’ll probably just keep your vacation. So hoist a few and call a lawyer! It’ll be fun!

This doesn’t answer the question of how Pay By Touch got into “healthcare, online, government” in the first place. Shouldn’t it have, say, figured out how to make money off fingerprint-approved payments first?

Source:Valleywag

Omnidrive, dead or undead? Dead startups, lying CEOs, and disgruntled, unpaid employees seem to follow Michael Arrington wherever he goes. He doesn’t cause them, but he sure seems to attract them. First there was Edgeio. Now, the latest is online-storage company OmniDrive, a startup which the conflicts-embracing TechCrunch editor invested last year. Nik Cubrilovic, OmniDrive’s founder and CEO, disputes the assertion that it may be time to put the company on deathwatch. Former employees disagree, pointing out that it’s in a crowded market of bigger players, is beset by technical problems, and rumored to have lost its CTO. What’s the real story?

Cubrilovic claims the company has received funding, is profitable, and has a bright future ahead of it. But Phil Morle, a former CTO for OmniDrive, and another ex-worker claim otherwise.

Morle makes serious accusations. Not only were he and other employees not paid, he says, but Cubrilovic allegedly used a personal PayPal account to take OmniDrive users’ subscription fees, a careless move that could open him up to charges of commingling personal and corporate finances.

It would be nice to know which story is closer to the truth. If only there was an investor and board member with his own technology blog who could clear up this matter. Alas, Arrington so far has been silent on the drama at OmniDrive.