BREAKING NEWS: Advanced Bionics lays off 150 100+ employees in the wake of the FDA-ordered Recall Production Halt, including longtime field support staff. Details to be posted as they become available.
Posted 11:15 PM January 14, 2011
UPDATE 1A: We have received additional reports after the first one received Friday 11:00PM that the number of layoffs is “slightly over 100.” We can confirm that there was one unnamed layoff at Rixheim; Linda Luallen being laid off from Valencia; Phil Ives, Ph.D being laid off in Denver; and we are still awaiting reports from Hannover and AB-UK
CLARIFICATION: We received an email from a very upset friend, Terri Ives, Ph.D, about us naming her husband Phil as one of the 100+ that was laid off in Update 1 published on Monday; with the implication that he was the source of the leak on Friday night when we broke the story to the world — He was .NOT. our source. Instead, we happened to see a post on his wife’s Facebook page on Sunday that Phil was laid off. Phil and Terri are both honorable and trustworthy professionals; and anyone implying anything to the contrary will be met with the Full Force of this publication~
Update 1A posted 3:00 AM January 19, 2011
Clarification posted 8:00 PM January 20, 2011
UPDATE 2: We are in receipt of an unusual email from Jennifer Raulie, an Audiologist at Advanced Bionics whom we know, sent Monday afternoon to a reader of this publication. Here is an excerpt:
My name is Jennifer and I am one of the audiologists on staff at Advanced Bionics. I was reviewing the Hearing Journey [URL added: Ed.] today and came across several of your posts. Welcome to the online community! It is nice you see you there! I just wanted to reach out to you to let you know that the information in the links to The Hearing Blog you posted is absolutely false and not based on any factual information. The person that runs this blog has no connection to Advanced Bionics or Sonova and in fact is not even a CI recipient of any brand. It was clear to me, from reading your posts you figured this out on your own, but I just wanted to reassure you that what you read was in fact garbage.
We would like to remind Ms Raulie that Sonova Holding AG (SOON.VX) is listed on the Zurich Exchange; and her denial — “what you read was in fact garbage” — of their Advanced Bionics subsidiary’s layoffs could be construed by Swiss and EU regulators as making materially false statements about the financial condition of a publicly traded corporation.
As we have previously stated, we are in no way affiliated with any corporation or other entity; and we accept no advertising; and for that, we thank Ms Raulie for emphasizing that point. However, the Editor, Dan Schwartz, must take exception to a cheap shot by Ms Raulie when she wrote “in fact is not even a CI recipient of any brand.” That is indeed true, as although Mr Schwartz is a candidate for cochlear implants, he is not a user yet due to insurance issues. Why Ms Raulie chose to raise this extraneous issue cuts to the very core of her letter: Instead of explicitly addressing the issues she, as a spokeswoman for her employers, factually disputes, all she can do is resort to name-calling.
Our answer to Ms Raulie, Sonova, and Advanced Bionics is this: Tell us explicitly where we are wrong, supply us with documentation so we can verify your claim; and we will promptly correct the record. Please address your correspondence to Dan@Snip.Net: We are awaiting your reply.
Update posted 3:00 AM January 19, 2011
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Pingback by Tweets that mention BREAKING: Advanced Bionics Layoffs « The Hearing Blog -- Topsy.com — January 15, 2011 @ 1:49 am
I suggest you view this page and think before you make posts like this:
http://www.eff.org/issues/bloggers/legal/liability/defamation
Comment by roborob — January 15, 2011 @ 9:24 pm
Robo Rob: Truth is an absolute affirmative defense.
I have also offered Advanced Bionics a chance to comment and/or refute any of my contentions. Their silence speaks volumes.
Comment by Supervisor — January 16, 2011 @ 12:07 am
B.S. that’s all I have to say about this entire blog. You seriously expect people to believe all this garbage?
Comment by someone — January 17, 2011 @ 6:00 pm
I contacted AB and they have stated via email that your claim is absolutely false.
Comment by Roborob — January 17, 2011 @ 8:17 pm
Anonymous, I don’t care if you believe it or not. If you choose to drink the KoolAid, that is up to you.
Comment by Supervisor — January 18, 2011 @ 2:50 am
Roborob: I have three more independent reports on the layoffs, including the one layoff from Rixheim. Also, although the first report had 150 layoffs listed, two of the three subsequent reports had the total as just over 100.
That being said, can you please forward to us the email — including headers — from Advanced Bionics: If indeed this was sent after 11PM EST on Friday, when I got the first report, they are in a whole lot of trouble with Swiss and EU securities regulators for making materially false statements about the financial condition of a publicly traded company, as Sonova is traded on the Zurich stock exchange. [Since Sonova is NOTtraded as an ADR on any of the US exchanges, most likely they will escape any SEC jeopardy]
Please copy and paste the entire message into a comment here, and I’ll publish it unedited and unredacted; or forward it to me at Dan@Snip.Net and ask that I redact your information.
~Dan
Comment by Supervisor — January 18, 2011 @ 3:02 am
BREAKING: Advanced Bionics Layoffs « The Hearing Blog…
Here at World Spinner we are debating the same thing……
Trackback by World Spinner — January 18, 2011 @ 11:43 am
I emailed you the letter. I stand corrected, please use as you see fit. Thank you.
Comment by roborob — January 18, 2011 @ 9:08 pm
Wall Street Journal confirms job cuts
http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20110118-707477.html
Comment by patti — January 20, 2011 @ 12:44 am
Clipping a quote from one of your comments…
“The duration I was not aware of”
It’s beginning to seem like the “…I was not aware…” part is becoming a theme.
Comment by Jeffrey — January 22, 2011 @ 12:39 am
You made some good points there. I did a search on this topic and found most people will agree with your blog.
Comment by Joe — January 29, 2011 @ 4:17 am
my God, i thought you were going to chip in with some decisive insght at the end there, not leave it
with ‘we leave it to you to decide’.
Comment by Harrison Knupp — February 2, 2011 @ 6:57 am