Wall Data Closes Its Local Office Company Cuts 225 Jobs Worldwide In Reorganization

Wall Data, a Seattle-based software company, closed its 17-person Spokane engineering office earlier this week.

The layoffs follow the departure of Wall Data’s CEO and an announcement that the company expects an operating loss of about $12 million for its fiscal first quarter, which ended in July.

Marc Lewis, a senior product development manager for Wall Data in Spokane, said affected employees will receive severance packages.

Wall Data opened its local engineering office at 1227 N. Argonne in January 1998. Wall Data’s board of directors revealed the company will refocus on its key product, called Rumba, which allows users to access information on different computer systems.

Another software item the company developed, know as Cyberprise, will no longer be pursued. Wall Data engineers in Spokane were making Unix programs for Cyberprise.

Wall Data laid off 225 of its 680-member work force worldwide this week as part of its reorganization.

Lewis said two companies, Packet Engines and F-5 Networks, have interviewed many of Wall Data’s Spokane engineers following news of the layoffs.

F-5 Networks, which makes a traffic-management product for Internet servers, recently opened a Spokane division that is headed by Jeff Stockdale, a former Packet employee.

This sidebar appeared with the story: LOCALLY Layoffs The 17 people in the Spokane engineering office were layed off this week. A company manager said they will get severance packages.