CEO John Markus Lervik has a plan for how to get the search engine company Fast back on the right track.

According to Aftenposten/E24 the troubled search engine company Fast Search & Transfer will let go of 148 employees.

All in all the company has hired some 400 in 2006 and 2007. The cuts will take place all over the world.

There is apparently a good dialog between employer and employees and the people that have to go will be compensated.

The company is definitely facing a new life as compared to the previous years. Dagens Næringsliv reports that the company saw its fourth year in a row with over 50 percent growth in 2006.

The turnover for 2007 is now estimated to be USD 160 million, compared to 162.6 million in 2006. However, the company expects a 30 percent growth next year.

The trouble started in the fall of 2006, when financial director Joesph Larson discovered unexpected losses of NOK 65 millions (USD 11 mill). Unfortunately that was not the end of the story. CEO John Markus Lervik now admits that the company has been too much technology- and sales-driven.

According to E24 Fast is to save NOK 280 million this year (USD 47 mill). Fast will also leave some business areas and focus on core activities (business enterprise search).

Some have argued that Fast should find itself a strong international partner. Lervik does not want to see the company acquired by a competitor, though:

“The search engine market has to be consolidated,” he says. “but we would like to be in a position where it is we who ‘consolidates’, instead of being ‘consolidated’.