downturn

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

Is Cisco fattening its wallet for acquisitions?

Technology giant Cisco Systems said Monday it plans to sell $4 billion in bonds to pad its corporate wallet with cash, spurring speculation that the company is on the hunt for companies to buy. But exactly which companies it might target and how much it is willing to pay are still unknown.

Cisco has shared some general thoughts on how it plans to spend the extra cash. For one, it will use a portion of the funds to pay down its $500 million of floating rate debt that comes due this month, according to Terry Alberstein, a spokesman for Cisco.… Read more

Lenovo to refocus on Chinese market

Now that the leadership of Lenovo is back in the hands of Chinese executives, the PC maker says it plans to pay more attention to its home market of China and other emerging markets, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal.

It cut ties with its American CEO Bill Amelio earlier this week after a dreadful financial quarter in which the company lost $97 million. Chairman Yan Yuanqing has taken over as chief executive and company co-founder Liu Chuanzhi is returning to become chairman of the board.

Liu blames the company's current woes on the worldwide financial … Read more

Lenovo CEO steps down

Lenovo President and CEO William Amelio resigned Thursday after the Chinese PC maker reported a nearly $97 million loss for its fiscal third quarter.

Yang Yuanqing has relinquished his role as chairman to replace Amelio as CEO, effective Thursday, the company said in a statement filed with Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing. Yang will remain as an executive director and had served as the company's CEO until April 2005 when he was appointed board chairman.

The announcement comes at the end of Amelio's three-year contract with the company, Lenovo said, adding that Amelio will serve as a special … Read more

AOL ad revenue continues to slide

This was originally posted at ZDNet's Between the Lines.

Time Warner's fourth-quarter financial results showed more pain for its struggling AOL unit.

AOL's quarterly revenue fell 23 percent from a year ago to $968 million, Time Warner said Wednesday. AOL's ad revenue fell 18 percent and subscription revenue fell 27 percent from a year ago. AOL also had an operating loss of $1.9 billion, largely due to a $2.2 billion noncash charge related to the carrying value of goodwill. In a nutshell, AOL acquired a bunch of companies such as Bebo that aren't … Read more

Ballmer: Tech is economy's eventual savior

NEW YORK--The tech industry may not stop the economy from slowing, but it will be a big part of the eventual recovery, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said on Tuesday.

"Nothing is going to stop deleveraging; the economy has to reset," Ballmer said, as part of a joint interview with EMC CEO Joe Tucci. "At the same time you've got to say where do you get economic growth. The truth is, you only get economic growth from the following things. Population growth, inflation, productivity increases...and financial leverage."

There's no question, Ballmer said, that there … Read more

EMC, Microsoft team for share of IT budgets

NEW YORK--While tech spending has not evaporated, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said on Tuesday that most companies have mandated that their IT departments cut a significant percentage from their budgets.

"To save 5 (percent) to 10 percent, you have to save a little bit on a lot of things," Ballmer told CNET News on Tuesday, in a joint interview with EMC CEO Joe Tucci, "It's not like there's nothing new getting done. Some new projects are getting killed. There's pressure on vendors to reduce prices."

Tucci said he is seeing similar pressures due … Read more

Novell lays off just under 100 workers

Correction at 1:31 p.m. PST January 31: A much lower figure for the layoffs has been added. My apologies to Novell, though I am glad to hear that the layoffs are much less severe than my source told me).

An inside source at Novell just informed me that Novell laid off a considerable percentage of its workforce on Friday. (That source, as noted above, was wrong. He has been a good source of information in the past, but he got this 100 percent wrong, and I was wrong to post that original number without waiting for comment from … Read more

Citrix to reduce staff by 10 percent

Citrix Systems, the business software company behind the Xen hypervisor, said it plans to cut 10 percent of jobs despite being "pleased" with its fourth-quarter results.

Overall revenue for the fourth quarter increased from $400 million (300 million pounds) to $416 million, the company said on Wednesday, even though revenue from product licenses fell by 9 percent. Revenue from license updates was up by 13 percent, and online service revenue grew by 18 percent compared with the same quarter the previous year. Net income for the fourth quarter was $60 million, calculated on a GAAP basis, a drop … Read more

Tech ads on the sidelines at this year's Super Bowl

In the business world, that amorphous concept called "consumer confidence" is measured in dozens of metrics, algorithms, and white papers. In the real world, there are Super Bowl ads. So, unsurprisingly, if you look at the lineup of Super Bowl ads from tech companies this year, the outlook isn't sunny.

Virtually all the electronic and digital brands running ads at this year's game between the Arizona Cardinals and Pittsburgh Steelers have advertised at the Super Bowl in past years: domain giant GoDaddy, job search sites Monster.com and CareerBuilder, brokerage house E-Trade, and online auto marketplace … Read more