Los Gatos-Based Netflix Lays Off 50 Technical Specialists

Los Gatos, Calif. -- Netflix, the Los Gatos-based online DVD rental service, said that it plans to lay off 50 "technical specialist" employees in its customer service department, citing in part the decreasing number of problems that customers are now experiencing with its streaming web player. The company recently switched to using Microsoft's Silverlight platform for video delivery. "This action doesn't affect our main Customer Service group, which has more than 300 people and continues to expand with the growth of our customer base," Steve Swasey, the company's vice president of corporate communications, wrote in a blog post. "And its not indicative of Netflix as a whole as we continue to add engineers and other positions throughout the company." http://blog.netflix.com/2008/12/changes-in-customer-service.html