You know you’re in for a treat when the story you’re reading has, in big red letters, “Please note that this story is based upon rumor and/or speculation.” So let’s begin with that and move on to points rendered. Manager Magazin in Germany is reporting that both Sony and Ericsson are thinking of shutting down or selling their Sony Ericsson joint venture, a partnership… → Read More
Oh, Nokia. Over the next few months, the handset maker plans on cutting 1,700 jobs. These cuts will effect the handset and marketing unit, as well as corporate development and global support functions. It’s all because the company is expecting the weakest first quarter since the first part 2001. So, help ‘em out, will ya? Buy a N96 or two. (or just win the one we’re giving away next week) → Read More
Sony employees locked Sony France execs Serge Foucher and Roland Bentz in a meeting room for a night because they were upset about getting fired and not getting the same relocation package as other workers. After the CEO agreed to continue negotiations, the workers set him free. And it’s not the first time this has happened (or worked). → Read More
Ooma – the $250 VoIP box that lets you make free calls in the US (and that lets you call the US for free from international locales, an undocumented perk to be sure) – is getting more and more popular thanks to the downturn. With a new Chief Marketing Officer, Rich Buchanan, and a new price the system is now selling like cakes that are hot. The boxes are now sold at 1,300 stores and a… → Read More
IDG is reporting that Foxconn, the largest contract electronics maker in the world (they make almost everything you own. Seriously), is working with IBM to modernize factories in China. They’re planning on spending a “few billion” on new technologies including LED lighting and solar panels. → Read More
So the rumors were correct. Apple laid off 50 folks in enterprise sales. The rumors that it was a major lay-off were untrue and anything larger than about 50 would have required them to file a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) act. Oh well. Back to consuming iPods. → Read More
Rumors are coming out of Apple that corporate sales folks will be laid off today. Considering there are very few corporate offerings in the Apple portfolio, it’s not surprising they’re closing up some non-retail channels. Apple is probably responding to threats of reduced corporate IT spending. Let’s hope this is the worst of it when it comes to everyone’s favorite… → Read More
Some women are getting creative trying to make some quick cash in these troubled times: they’re trying to sell their eggs to fertility clinics. Inquiries to one fertility clinic in Illinois, for example, were up 40% in 2008. It sure beats stripping, but according to one clinic only 5-7% of potential egg donors are actually accepted. Egg donations may seem like an easy way to mak big bucks, but t… → Read More
Sir Howard Stringer Esq. MSRP III Jr., current CEO of Sony, is now replacing Ryoji Chubachi as president. He will also remain CEO while Mr. Chubachi will be come responsible for product quality and safety. This move is also known as “putting their Japanese horses out to pasture” and it’s bad news for Sony. → Read More
And so the economic crisis hit America’s largest digital camera retailer: Ritz Camera. The retailer just filed for Chapter 11 thanks to lower than expected sales during the ’08 Holiday season. Thankfully for everyone involved, Chapter 11 bankruptcy is simply a reorganization which means they will probably stick around for a bit. That is if a judge approves $85 million in financing. Hopefully the… → Read More
This is really neither here nor there, but it’s got a sort of ring of truth to it. It seems that the frequency of shark attacks on popular vacation spots decreases before and during economic collapse. I’m thinking that maybe it’d be just as effective to analyze air travel records or hotels, but this is much more fun and macabre. → Read More
While we failed to find much of anything at the Circuit City liquidation sales, apparently a whole bunch of other people did. The liquidator overlords are reporting that they managed to sell more than $1 billion of Circuit City’s inventory at these sales. In fact, many Circuit City stores have either closed up permanently, or are about to shut the doors because the sales have gone so well. Not a… → Read More
Midway Games, famous for developing the Mortal Kombat franchise and other games, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. They cite the onset of debt troubles as the cause.
It doesn’t come as a surprise to the shareholders, really, but that doesn’t make it any less sad to see yet another…fatality of the market. → Read More
IDC, analysts to the stars, are reporting that worldwide processor shipments are down in the fourth quarter of 2008 17% since the same period last quarter. Overall sales grew by 10% while revenue grew a mere .9%.
”The decline in PC processor unit shipments in the fourth quarter was the worst sequential decline since IDC started tracking processor shipments in 1996,” said Shane Rau, director of… → Read More
After pulling the plug on LD production just last month and saying their TV business is practically dead, Pioneer today in Tokyo hold a press conference explaining the latter move in more detail [JP, PDF]. And the details aren’t pretty at all. → Read More
Australian site ARN is reporting that “ASUS has announced an increase in prices of up to 20 per cent on all existing and upcoming notebooks and Eee Family products, effective March 1, 2009,” citing, you guessed it, the economy. → Read More
In a move that has shocked investors and industry analysts, Nintendo has adjusted its expected net down from ¥345bn to ¥230bn, a drop of more than a billion dollars. Do they know something we don’t? → Read More
Just so you know it isn’t just the younger players dropping jobs like it’s going out of style, it looks like the blue chips are feeling it, too. IBM and TI filed their papers just recently and they have been found to be scraping the bottom as well. TI more than IBM, but still. Condolences to all. → Read More
The Microsoft-owned developers responsible for the Microsoft Flight Simulator series (and the upcoming Microsoft Train Simulator) have been hit pretty hard by all those job cuts. The worst reports suggest that everyone in connection with Flight Simulator was let go. Yikes. → Read More
So, what do Americans buy as their country’s economy collapses around them? Well, according to Forbes, we still buy things like smartphones, video games and movie tickets. We’ll spend our way out of this yet. → Read More
Seagate’s earnings report was released today, and it was revealed that during the most recent quarter, they had a net loss of $496 million. That’s a lot! Of course, the fact is most companies are showing enormous drops in revenue, and are weathering it variously well depending on their volume and incidental costs like restructuring, acquisitions and so on.
I’d be more worried about their actual… → Read More
Microsoft’s quarterly target – the numbers it’s planning to report for revenue and profit – could end up lower than their original expectations thereby forcing the gentle giant to shed “thousands of jobs,” according to Reuters.
Wall Street is looking for quarterly revenue of $17.1 billion, according to Reuters Estimates, also short of Microsoft’s own target of $17.3 billion to $17.8… → Read More
It’s about time for eBay to reveal its fourth quarter income, revenues and all that to investors, and no one is expecting anything but bad news. The company’s revenue, despite increasing competition from every angle, has grown for ten years straight, but it looks like that simply wasn’t sustainable lately, and they’re going to post a decline in income. eBay is philosophical about it, however, and… → Read More
More bad news for AMD. They announced today that they would be reducing their workforce even further. This will be their third round of layoffs, and things are not looking good for the future. At least with Intel, NVIDIA, and other semicondunductor companies also feeling the hurt, AMD doesn’t have to suffer alone. → Read More
Actually, there’s a real reason they’re splitting. Their LCD and semiconductor arms will be combining, being the two most stricken in these dark economic times, which leaves mobile and media to be together in (hopefully) lasting harmony. Sudden loss of credit (that probably never existed really) and loss of consumer confidence have hammered income in their LCD and memory sectors, normally cash… → Read More
Intel released its quarterly earnings report today, which revealed a 90% drop in profits compared to the same quarter last year. I’m no economy major, but if I try to work through the jargon I believe they’re saying that their profits dropped by 90% over a year period.
Considering how much of a lead they have on rival AMD (also hurting) and the immense popularity of Atom-based netbooks, this… → Read More
Looks like we’re going to be seeing price increases of about 10% on Nikon glass come February 1st. Although a reason was not really given (it’s not even confirmed by Nikon yet), it makes sense after prices were raised in other countries. Japanese exports are down and consumer spending is dropping as well; I guess Nikon is thinking that if someone is going to spend $6000 on a lens, they’re probably… → Read More
Man oh man! You show me a business that isn’t taking a hit in this economy, and I’ll show you (probably) a corporation guilty of price fixing and underhanded dealings. If AMD is feeling the hurt, laying off people left and right, at least they can be comforted by the fact that NVIDIA just announced that quarterly revenues will be down “40 to 50 percent” over the same quarter last year. → Read More
President-elect Obama, who’s about to inherit one hell of an economy, is a huge gamer. Actually, hold that: no he’s not. He does, however, play the occasional game of Wii Bowling with his daughters. → Read More
Western Digital announced today that they are closing one of their 3 manufacturing plants in Thailand, and laying off around 5% of their total workforce — roughly 2500 people. In addition to the closure, they are cutting back production at their other fabrication plants, and reducing compensation to upper management. This is a reaction to lower then expected third quarter revenues, and was… → Read More
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