Corporate & legal

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

A California dentist is suing a couple for libel over a negative review on Yelp, according to a report in the San Francisco Chronicle.

In the suit filed last month in Santa Clara County Superior Court, Foster City dentist Yvonne Wong is asking for damages over allegedly defamatory comments made by Tai Jing and Mia Ma of Los Altos about the care given to their son. The review by "T.J." said the dentist had used mercury in fillings and had given the boy laughing gas, making him "light headed."

Yelp is also named as a … Read more

Shares of Adobe Systems fell 7 percent Tuesday after a market analyst downgraded the company's stock from "market perform" to "underperform."

Share closed at $22.10, down $1.66, after FBR Research analyst David Hilal said in a research note that he cut his rating on Adobe's stock because the "shares have risen to a point where the risk-reward profile is unfavorable." Hilal also said Adobe depends too much on new unit sales and lacks recurring revenue from existing customers.

In other news, Adobe announced that former Yahoo executive Dan Rosensweig had … Read more

Carol Bartz's first appearance as Yahoo's new CEO was short, but she came out guns-a-blazin'. Autodesk's former CEO and executive chairman clearly wants to be seen as an assertive executive, not a shrinking violet.

During a 20-minute call with press and analysts, Bartz mostly stuck to a predictable script--Yahoo's valuable assets, strong employees, shareholder value, blah blah blah--and avoided any mention of strategic options such as selling Yahoo's search business to Microsoft.

But she showed flashes of liveliness that, doubtless not accidentally, helped present her as a straight-talking character who's firmly seized the reins. … Read more

Former Autodesk Chief Executive Carol Bartz, 60, will be the new CEO at Yahoo. Here is more information on who she is and what she faces in her new role.

Education

Bachelor's degree in computer science at the University of Wisconsin at Madison

Resume

Executive chairman of the board, Autodesk

CEO, Autodesk, 1992-2006

VP of worldwide field operations, at Sun Microsystems, 1983-1992

Product Line and Sales Management positions at Digital Equipment and 3M

Director on boards of Cisco Systems, Intel, NetApp

Awards

President George W. Bush's Council of Advisers on Science and Technology

50 Most Powerful Women in … Read more

Carol Bartz, Autodesk's former executive chairman, has replaced Jerry Yang as Yahoo's chief executive.

"She is the exact combination of seasoned technology executive and savvy leader that the board was looking for, and we are thrilled to have attracted such a world-class talent to Yahoo," Yahoo Chairman Roy Bostock said in a statement Tuesday. "The board is united in its view that her energetic and decisive leadership style, coupled with a proven track record of driving growth, operational excellence and shareholder value, is exactly what Yahoo needs to get back on a path toward achieving its full potential."

Bartz, 60, spent 14 years as Autodesk's CEO before becoming executive chairman in 2006. At Yahoo, Bartz's challenges will include adapting from a successful but relatively unknown software company to a struggling media company whose Internet properties used by hundreds of millions of people.

In addition, Yahoo announced the departure of President Susan Decker.

"The Board thanks Sue for her service as President, the important contributions she has made to Yahoo!'s development in a variety of roles over the past 8-1/2 years, and her willingness to work with Carol Bartz to ensure a smooth transition. We respect her decision to move on to other challenges and wish her only the best," Bostock said in a statement.

Stay tuned to this post for more details as they come from a news conference at 2:30 p.m. PST. We'll be live-blogging the event.… Read more

Updated 2:09 p.m. PDT to note that Bartz has officially replaced Jerry Yang as CEO.

Carol Bartz, Autodesk's executive chairman and Yahoo's new chief executive, is by most accounts a strong, smart manager familiar with running a large company.

The big question for the successor to outgoing Chief Executive Jerry Yang, though, is how well her experience nurturing growth at a computer-aided design software company will transfer to the job of turning around an embattled media company.

Analysts scrutinizing the situation, though, are more bullish on Bartz than worried about her media chops.

"Bartz (is … Read more

Antivirus provider AVG Technologies on Tuesday announced that it is acquiring Sana Security, which sells identity fraud prevention software.

Under the deal, whose financial terms were not disclosed, the Redwood City, Calif., headquarters of Sana will serve as Amsterdam-based AVG's first office in Silicon Valley.

Sana's products use behavioral technology to block attackers from stealing sensitive information. The software analyzes normal application behavior and recognizes abnormal behavior caused by malware infections, user configuration errors, and software bugs.