It was only a matter of time before the sub-mortgage crisis that nearly destroyed Wall Street would also slam into Silicon Valley.

That crash arrived early this year.

Nearly a year after the bottom fell out of the housing market and three months after the collapse of Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers, the American technology industry suffered its own collapse. In January, firms across the industry began announcing the same huge cutbacks and sweeping layoffs that previously had been witnessed in the nation’s manufacturing, automobile and financial sectors.

According to some estimates, more than 300,000 tech jobs at more than 400 companies have been lost.