Business Tech

Correction, 12:45 p.m. PST: This story initially misstated the time period during which Unisys had over $1.3 billion in revenue. It was last quarter. Story also has been updated to clarify that the federal government has a proposed IT budget of more than $70 billion for 2009.

Lots of people lose money during recessions, so most tech vendors hunker down. They cut staff, trim budgets, and hoard cash to weather the storm. Some vendors buck this trend and look for risky opportunities that could lead to rich rewards. For those companies that remain on the offensive, buying … Read more

While many retailers are understandably nervous about what this holiday will bring, none is likely more so than Circuit City.

Blockbuster rescinded an offer to buy the beleaguered chain earlier this year and its CEO stepped down in September. Its stock has been languishing below $1 for long enough that the company has been notified it could be delisted from the New York Stock Exchange. And now the company has been forced to close 155 stores right before the crucial holiday sales period because of the dearth of credit available in the market right now.

For all intents and purposes, it appears the nation's second-largest electronics retailer is on the verge of disaster. Even if this season's sales results end up not being as bleak as some are predicting, it's unlikely even that could save Circuit City at this point. Circuit City did not respond to a request for comment for this article.

Though Wall Street analysts who watch Circuit City closest aren't ready to go on record to go on a death watch for the electronics chain, suffice it to say, its pulse is getting weaker and things aren't looking good.

The global credit crunch is hurting Circuit City in particular. The retailer buys TVs, stereos, laptops, and other gadgets on credit, usually at a good rate from vendors with the promise to pay it back once the company sells the goods in its stores. But as the company has racked up huge losses, vendors are not giving Circuit City reasonable financing rates. Though Circuit City hasn't come out and said so, some vendors could be convinced altogether that the retailer flat out won't be able to pay the money back and could decline to send Circuit City any products at all. At that point, it becomes almost impossible for Circuit City to operate.

Because of this, the business model of Circuit City and other electronics retailers doesn't work without very fast growth. And sales of many of the big-ticket items like notebooks, flat-panel TVs, and even gaming consoles (it's the first year in awhile there won't be a hot, new, hard-to-get console), are tapering off.

No doubt, the slumping economy is causing some consumers to be more conservative about purchases this year. Consumers polled by the Consumer Electronics Association say they plan to spend $200 less this year than last on holiday items.

Add to that a fundamental shift in the way media is consumed--more online video and digital downloads, slowly moving away from packaged media and accompanying players--and the future of the electronics retail business doesn't look so bright. As prices drop, it gets harder to grow business. And without that growth, it's impossible for Circuit City to pay back those loans, much less suddenly become profitable, said one analyst who asked not to be quoted.… Read more

Intel's Atom processor lifted processor shipments in the third quarter but the future for overall processor shipments is uncertain, IDC said.

Worldwide PC microprocessor shipments in the third calendar quarter of 2008 reached record levels again, according to market researcher IDC. However, the outlook for the processor market in the fourth quarter and 2009 is "very murky," said Shane Rau, director of Semiconductors: Personal Computing research at IDC, in a statement.

Worldwide PC processor unit shipments grew 14 percent quarter over quarter and 15.8 percent year over year, while market revenue grew 7.6 percent from … Read more

SAN FRANCISCO--After a decade as the chief evangelist in the wilderness of software as a service, which has morphed into cloud computing, Salesforce.com founder and CEO Marc Benioff is having a more challenging time coming up with groundbreaking industry disruptions. But that isn't stopping him from enthusiastically preaching the cloud computing gospel.

Benioff and company have built a $1 billion business and gradually expanded a CRM application, run like Google runs search in the cloud, into a platform that greatly reduces the friction involved in business software development and delivery. With Microsoft recently entering the cloud-computing platform arena with Azure … Read more

Circuit City Stores announced Monday it plans to close 155 stores and lay off 17 percent of its workforce in the U.S., as it aims to restructure its business amid a tightening credit market and downturn in business.

Over the past few weeks, the retailer's financial health has become more dire and, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal, was considering restructuring moves as a means to avoid a Chapter 11 reorganization bankruptcy filing.

The struggling electronics retailer noted in its announcement that not only have its sales dropped amid an economic slowdown and loss in … Read more

Updatd on November 3 at 9:00 a.m. with additional information about Dell Core i7 systems.

Intel's Core i7 processor will first appear in fast gaming desktop PCs, as reviews arrive confirming its speed advantage over the Core 2 architecture.

The first comprehensive reviews hit Monday leaving little doubt that Intel's Nehalem chip architecture will greatly surpass anything Intel offers now.

Reviews cover the Core i7-965 Extreme Edition used with Intel's "SmackOver" motherboard, aka the DX58SO Extreme.

Core i7 processors expected to launch later this month include 2.66GHz (Core i7-920) and 3.20GHz (… Read more

Salesforce.com is expanding its cloud computing service with a new option that lets customers more easily build external Web sites.

The company is expected to announce the new service, called Force.com Sites, at its Dreamforce user conference on Monday in San Francisco.

The service extends the company's existing Force.com service, used to build internal business applications, to development and hosting of Web sites targeted at external users, said Kendall Collins, senior vice president of product marketing at Salesforce.com.

"There are a lot of people out there who struggle with the infrastructure demands," he … Read more

Last week, Novell did a very curious and exceptional thing: it loosened its grip on the OpenSuse community, allowing (and encouraging) its first community-elected and -managed board.

How cool is that? Novell has had an OpenSuse board for the past year, but not one for and by the community itself. I asked Joe Brockmeier, OpenSuse community manager, to comment:

Having a community-elected board is a major step forward for the project. We now have more than 212 recognized members, which means that contributors who have made significant and sustained contributions to the project, and who have applied for membership, and … Read more

The layoffs across the tech sector are hitting companies large and small.

The maker of the popular Jawbone Bluetooth headset has let several employees go, citing the economy as one of the main reasons.

"Given the current economic climate and opportunities we have to more efficiently bring products to market, we are realigning our resources to increase focus on our core technology and products. As part of this effort, we have eliminated a number of positions in the organization," an Aliph spokesperson confirmed to CNET News Friday.

The spokesperson declined to say how many or from which departments … Read more