In February 1999, Qualcomm Inc., a telecommunications company based in San Diego, laid off 700 of its 11,000 employees, "due to slow sales of digital phone technologies overseas". http://www.adec.edu/user/headlines/1999/benton02-03.html But in 1999, Qualcomm's stock "surged an unbelievable 2,600 percent (put in $1,000, get back $27,000)." http://news.com.com/2100-1017-235357.html In January 2004, Accelrys Inc., a cheminformatics/bioinformatics company based in San Diego, laid off 50 of its 200+ employees, because despite revenues of $95.1 million in 2002, "The company has not been profitable." (For those interested in "offshoring", some of the jobs are going to India, while others are going to England.) http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/business/biotech/20040110-9999_1b10accelrys.html But Peter Herbert, a managing partner of the venture firm Lux Capital, thinks Accelrys stock is a good pick. http://www.boston.com/business/markets/articles/2004/01/20/the_next_small_thing What do you think?