Corporate & legal

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

Google is growing up and tweaking its business on many fronts: it is closing up shop in some engineering centers, laying off recruiters, ending deals with contractors, and killing projects that aren't delivering. Simply put, Google is acting like a real company.

Although some folks (Techmeme) will view these changes as bad news, it appears that Google is maturing. And that's a good thing. Another good thing: the myth of Google is going away. Who really bought that Google-is-invincible line of thinking? Google as recession-proof? Not quite. Google … Read more

Motorola announced Wednesday that it plans to cut another 4,000 jobs, or about 6 percent of its workforce, and warned that weaker-than-expected handset sales would lead to a fourth-quarter loss.

Motorola said 3,000 jobs would be eliminated from its handset unit, while another 1,000 jobs would be cut from the rest of the company. The cuts announced Wednesday are in addition to 3,000 job cuts Motorola announced in October as part of a broader restructuring that also halted the launch of many upcoming phones.

"The actions we are taking today in our Mobile Devices business … Read more

After nearly a decade at Yahoo, President Sue Decker is bowing out to make way for new Chief Executive Carol Bartz--after helping her new boss through a transition period. Here's the full text of the memo she sent to Yahoo staff--plus a Yahoo photo of her appearance with Bartz during Wednesday's all-hands meeting with the company's new leader.

From: Sue Decker Sent: Tuesday, January 13, 2009 2:32 PM To: all employees Subject: The next chapter

Yahoos

After almost nine incredibly rewarding years with this terrific company, I have decided that it is time for me … Read more

In past downturns, Microsoft has been able to trim around the edges and avoid large, widespread layoffs. But, as Steve Ballmer made clear in an interview with me last week, this is no ordinary downturn.

"The fact of the matter is, this is not a downturn, this is a bit of a reset," he said. "Those are quite different and we're trying to really suss through what we think that means for us."

For some weeks now, the company has been considering whether it would need to cut a significant number of jobs, with some … Read more

Google, having reduced its hiring rate, is also reducing its hiring staff.

The company said on its corporate blog that it's cutting about 100 jobs.

"Given the state of the economy, we recognized that we needed fewer people focused on hiring," said Laszlo Bock, Google's vice president of people operations, in the blog posting. "Our first step to address this was to wind down almost all our contracts with external contractors and vendors providing recruiting services for Google. However, after much consideration, we have with great regret decided that we need to go further and … Read more

To: Carol Bartz From: One member of the punditocracy Subject: Rebuilding Yahoo

Welcome to your new job as Yahoo's CEO.

As you probably guessed by how rapidly Jerry Yang slipped to footnote status in yesterday's stories, we're all glad to see you and eager to move on to the next phase of the news cycle. And judging by the fact that Yahoo's stock rose more than 2 percent to $12.41 today when most everybody else's went down, the shareholders are extending you some goodwill, too.

I know you requested some "breathing room" from us nattering nabobs … Read more

After several years of seemingly tireless 15 percent quarterly growth, the PC industry hit a wall at the end of 2008.

Overall PC shipments worldwide dropped 0.4 percent to 77.3 million units during the fourth quarter, according to IDC's Worldwide Quarterly PC Tracker study released Wednesday. The results are more alarming for the embattled industry considering that the quarter--the worst in several years--wasn't helped out more by the holiday shopping season. There hasn't been an overall drop in shipments since the second quarter of 2001, after the last recession.

"We had projected growth of … Read more

Nortel Networks, once a high-flying telecommunications equipment maker, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Wednesday.

Nortel has been struggling to regain its footing since the last economic downturn in 2001 and 2002, which hit the telecommunications industry particularly hard. But the recent credit crunch may end up as the death knell for the company, making it difficult for Nortel to fund its operations. At the same time, customers have also pulled back drastically on spending for the company's voice-only equipment.

For the past several months, Nortel's management team has been trying to cut spending. The company has also … Read more

Oracle has sliced approximately 500 positions from its sales and consulting staff businesses in North America, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal.

The positions, which would account for less than 2 percent of Oracle's North American workforce as of November, were cut on Friday, according to the Journal.

Oracle's reported layoffs come at a time when a number of companies across all industry sectors are slashing their workforce by double digits as the economy languishes in a recession.

And while other companies are making staff cuts amid steep declines in their revenues and earnings, Oracle'… Read more