Business Tech

Chip equipment maker Applied Materials is cutting 12 percent of its workforce after posting declining profit numbers and receiving quite the scare from Intel.

The company announced that 1,800 jobs will be cut from its ranks by this time next year, which could save it $400 million a year. Applied Materials makes the complicated and expensive equipment that Intel and AMD use to manufacture their processors, and if those companies see a downturn in their business, companies like Applied Materials are in for trouble.

With Intel reporting a huge decline in its expected revenue for the fourth quarter Wednesday … Read more

Updated to add reference to analyst downgrade.

Intel issued a fourth-quarter warning on Wednesday, noting its financial performance will be less than previously forecast and comes a day after downgrades by analysts.

The chip giant is scaling back its forecast as its revenues come in "significantly weaker" than expected across all its market segments and the countries that it operates in. Gross margins, as a result, also received a revised outlook.

Intel, which released its quarterly warning after the markets close, saw its shares drop 7.47 percent in after hours trading. During the regular trading session Wednesday, … Read more

In a bad day for publicly traded tech companies, Google's stock shares closed at $291 on Wednesday, marking the first time since 2005 that the Mountain View, Calif., dot-com's stock price has slipped below the $300 mark. The $291 is a 6.57 percent drop for the stock.

A parade of negative reports and estimates about ad spending in 2009 have led Wall Street analysts to cut their earnings estimates for Google, which can credit its explosive market valuation to its pioneering search-advertising technology.

Citigroup analyst Mark Mahaney characterized expectations for the fourth quarter of 2008 as "… Read more

Advanced Micro Devices on Thursday plans to discuss its strategy for ultraportables, a market where the chipmaker is a self-professed laggard.

Whether AMD targets Netbooks specifically or a different design isn't clear. But the company must contend with the fact that Netbooks have become a market sensation during the last year. The Asus Eee PC demonstrated quickly that there was latent demand for a small, low-cost, lightweight laptop-style computer.

Every major PC maker--with the exception of Sony--followed suit, including Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Toshiba, and Acer. And Microsoft has made it clear that a version of Windows 7 will be stripped … Read more

Industry analyst firm IDC is revising its yearly forecast on the IT budgets of companies around the world.

Because of the worldwide financial crisis, the firm expects spending on technology by enterprise companies to grow by just 2.6 percent next year compared with 2008. Before the late-September Wall Street meltdown, IDC was predicting a worldwide spending growth rate of 5.9 percent. In the U.S., it was expecting 4.2 percent growth, but now IDC is revising that to just 0.9 percent.

Companies like Cisco, Nortel, Dell, and others have already indicated they've seen or expect … Read more

CNET News staff writer Erica Ogg co-wrote this article.

Updated 12:50 p.m. PST with Dell confirmation.

Chief Technology Officer Kevin Kettler is retiring, Dell plans to announce in coming days, CNET News has learned.

Kettler is stepping down to spend time with his numerous activities in the Austin, Texas, area, according to multiple sources familiar with the situation, and the move isn't part of Dell's reorganization activities.

On Wednesday, shortly after this story was posted, Dell spokesman David Frink confirmed Kettler's departure.

"He wants to take time to focus on his family and his … Read more

Updated at 12:40 p.m. PST with Dell's comments and historical perspective on Apple iMac shortages due to lack of LCD flat panel displays.

LG Display, Sharp, and Chunghwa Picture Tubes agreed to plead guilty to criminal charges for participating in a liquid crystal display price-fixing conspiracy and pay $585 million in fines, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Wednesday.

The three companies worked in concert to set prices on thin-film transistor LCDs, which are used in computer monitors, notebooks, televisions, mobile phones, and various electronics, according to the antitrust unit of the Justice Department.

Apple, Dell, … Read more

Best Buy lowered its fiscal-year earnings forecast on Wednesday, citing fears that consumers will keep their wallets under lock and key during the holiday-shopping season.

Best Buy, which saw its archrival Circuit City file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Tuesday, said uncertainty surrounding consumer spending has made it difficult to project revenue for the rest of fiscal 2009, which ends February 28, 2009.

Uncertainty usually scares investors, who pushed Best Buy's shares down a steep 10.85 percent to $21.29 a share in early morning trading.

Best Buy CEO Brad Anderson sized up the current situation with this … Read more

Advanced Micro Devices' new graphics chips are taking market share from Nvidia, a report issued Wednesday confirmed.

"AMD has by all accounts exceeded expectations with its Radeon HD 4000 series," according to report issued by market researcher Jon Peddie Research (JPR).

Aggressive pricing by AMD's ATI graphics unit made the difference, bringing down prices on add-in graphics boards. "Priced aggressively yet delivering solid performance, AMD's new line not only took back some market share--jumping up to 40 percent from 35 percent the quarter prior--it forced Nvidia (and partners) to cut prices on its recently released … Read more