recession

Nokia cuts production, closes R&D facility

Nokia, the largest handset maker in the world, is cutting jobs at one plant and closing down at least one R&D site, as demand for cell phones plummets amid the worldwide recession.

The Finnish company said Wednesday that it will cut production at a key plant in Salo, Finland. It also plans to temporarily lay off about 20 percent to 30 percent of the plant's 2,500 employees on a rotational basis. All workers at the plant will be affected as groups rotate through the temporary layoffs.

Nokia also plans to shut down one R&D … Read more

U.S. stimulus bill pushes e-health records for all

commentary The U.S. Senate on Tuesday approved an $838 billion "stimulus" bill by a 61-37 vote, capping more than a week of political sparring between critics of the measure and President Obama, who claimed during a press conference that an "economic emergency" made it necessary.

What didn't come up during the president's first press conference was how one section of the convoluted legislation--it's approximately 800 pages total--is intended to radically reshape the nation's medical system by having the government establish computerized medical records that would follow each American from birth to … Read more

Obama names Doerr, Phillips to economic board

Two Silicon Valley leaders have been appointed by President Obama to a 16-person committee that's charged with offering economic advice during what has become an unusually sharp and deep recession.

John Doerr, the billionaire venture capitalist at Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers, is one. Doerr was involved in funding companies including Google, Amazon.com, Sun Microsystems, and Cypress Semiconductor; he currently serves on the board of companies including Amazon and Google and has recently turned his attention to green tech.

Charles Phillips, the president of Oracle, is another. Phillips became president in May 2003 and previously was with Morgan … Read more

Computer industry ranks third among job cuts

Baby New Year faces a tough time finding a job in this climate.

U.S. job cuts announced in January soared to 241,749 across all industries, marking the largest monthly cut in the past seven years, according to a report released Wednesday by Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

The computer industry ranked No. 3 among the industries facing the biggest ax in January, with 22,330 layoffs announced.

For an industry already under siege, it offers little encouragement after the tech sector exited last year with 186,955 job cuts in the telecommunications, computer, and electronics sectors. That figure was … Read more

Who has cash to survive the downturn?

The Financial Times points out that many technology companies are cash-rich and intend to stay so in order to ride out the recession. Apple sits atop nearly $26 billion in cash, while Microsoft keeps $19 billion in its pocket (and is probably grateful that its bid for Yahoo was declined, given how that would have decimated its bank balance).

Surprisingly, IBM is relatively cash-poor, with only $3.3 billion in the bank, and Oracle? Well, let's just say Oracle needs its acquisition strategy to start feeding it fat profits because its bank balance is $700 million underwater.

As for … Read more

Google's wildcard watch

Steve Ballmer, who just announced to the troops that Microsoft was firing 5,000 employees due to the recession, might be excused for wanting to slam his head against the wall at this point.

After reporting quarterly earnings, Google finished Friday up more than $18. So at this point, at least, it's still Google 1, Recession 0. The cool kids have the upper hand--at least for the time being.

I'm the last to suggest that Google is immune to the drag of an economic slowdown. Everyone these days is obviously tightening their belts, and Google is no exception. … Read more

Recession hits mobile-phone market

The global recession is hitting the handset market hard, as the biggest supplier in the market, Nokia, is seeing its sales plunge.

The Finnish handset maker said Thursday that fourth-quarter sales dropped 19 percent to $16.5 billion compared with the same period a year earlier. And its profit fell about 69 percent.

Nokia had warned investors in November and December that sales volumes were going to be lower than expected, but the magnitude of the decline still came as a big surprise to most investors.

Sales were hit not just at the high end, but also at the low … Read more

If you're IBM (and maybe HP), ain't life grand?

What with a deepening recession and concern about the health of financial system, the best-case expectations for technology spending ranged between the bleak and the desperate.

So what do we get? A counter-intuitive start to the earnings season.

The sub-text to IBM's post-earnings conference call on Monday easily could have been: "We're in a recession and ain't life grand?" (We'll have to wait until next month for Hewlett Packard to report its December quarter, but barring a shocker, HP may sing a similar tune.)

Not because these are salad days for the hardware businesses-just … Read more

AMD to trim 1,100 jobs, initiate temporary pay cuts

Updated at 10:12 a.m. PST, with more information about AMD's financial performance.

Advanced Micro Devices announced Friday it would slash its workforce by 9 percent and institute temporary salary cuts, from its executive chairman on down to hourly workers.

AMD will cut 1,100 positions in the first quarter through attrition and layoffs, as one of its measures to cut costs during these recessionary times.

The chipmaker will also institute temporary salary cuts, with its CEO Dirk Meyer and Executive Chairman Hector Ruiz both taking a 20 percent cut. In the U.S. and Canada, executives that … Read more