Corporate & legal

The iconic American technology company Motorola is in big trouble. But can a last ditch effort by a new top executive help the company pull one of the biggest comebacks in American business history?

That's the question that everyone is asking after Motorola broke the bad news on its quarterly conference call Thursday that the handset business, which has been in serious trouble for more than two years, will likely not make a turnaround until early 2010. The problems are so grave at the company, which reported huge losses for the third quarter, that Motorola is delaying its planned … Read more

Updated at 3:10 p.m., with comments from the earnings call.

Sun Microsystems reported a 7 percent drop in first-quarter revenue on Thursday, coming in the midrange of its previously lowered earnings forecast.

The embattled hardware maker posted revenue of $2.99 billion for the quarter, a drop from its year-ago performance.

Sun also posted a net loss of $1.68 billion, or $2.24 a share, for the first quarter, compared with a net profit of $89 million, or 10 cents a share, a year ago. Excluding its restructuring charge and write-offs for the declining value of its … Read more

TheStreet.com named co-founder and high-profile market commentator Jim Cramer as its chairman, in a move to separate the dual role of its Chief Executive Thomas Clarke.

The investor Web site noted that the separation of duties will allow Clarke to focus more on his efforts as CEO, during a period when the company is moving through a difficult economic environment.

The move by TheStreet.com to separate the positions is one that corporate America has increasingly embraced, though mainly to address corporate governance issues that have become a hot button in the era of Sarbanes-Oxley.

Motorola's profits from last quarter were short-lived, as the company once again reports losses for the third quarter.

And as the economy worsens, the company also said it will delay its split of the company in two.

On Thursday, Motorola reported a net loss of $397 million, or 18 cents a share. This is compared to a profit of about $60 million, or 3 cents a share, during the same quarter last year. Part of the loss is attributed to a net charge of 23 cents a share for restructuring the company.

Revenues for the quarter were down about … Read more

Shares of Foundry Networks soared more than 17 percent in premarket trading Thursday, after the company announced last evening that its merger with Brocade was still alive but at a lower purchase price.

Under the revised agreement, Brocade reduced its purchase price for the Santa Clara, Calif.-based switching and routing provider to approximately $2.6 billion from its initial agreement of $3 billion. Foundry shareholders are entitled to receive $16.50 a share in cash for every share of the company they own, verses $18.50 a share in cash and 0.0907 shares of Brocade common stock in … Read more

MySpace Music has offered its vacant CEO position to Courtney Holt, MTV Networks' executive vice president of digital music and media, according to a music industry source with knowledge of the negotiations.

The source said that Holt, previously an executive at Interscope Records, may be close to agreeing to the deal but that there are several sticking points.

The News Corp.-owned MySpace launched its music service last month, featuring streaming-music deals from all four major record labels and a retail affiliate partnership with the Amazon MP3 store.

In September, shortly before MySpace Music launched, reports indicated that the CEO … Read more

I spent the last two days in the Silicon Valley talking to IT vendors about the economy, IT spending, and near-term marketing plans. From San Jose to Redwood City, Calif., the ever-optimistic Valley is scared and somewhat frozen.

Venture capitalists are telling their portfolio companies to establish a hiring freeze and hoard cash. More troubling, VCs are running scared from sound investments like Identity Engines and others. In the meantime, large IT vendors are freezing budgets and developing contingency plans. So far, eBay, Qwest, and Yahoo have laid off employees; look for others to follow soon.

It's strange to … Read more

In addition to the phone companies, so far it looks like cable operators are also in good shape to weather the current economic downturn.

On Thursday, Comcast, the largest cable operator in the U.S., reported solid earnings for the third quarter of 2008. The company's net income for the third quarter rose 38 percent to $771 million compared with the same period a year ago. Revenue was up 10 percent to $8.55 billion

Thanks to reduced capital spending, Comcast also improved its cash flow by 77 percent to $928 million. Comcast is now expecting to exceed its … Read more

The BlackBerry Partners Fund announced Wednesday its first three major investments.

The $150 million fund was established in May to bankroll software developers creating new applications for smartphones, including Research In Motion's BlackBerry devices. The fund, which considers investments throughout the world, is co-managed by JLA Ventures and RBC Venture Partners.

So far the fund has made only small investments. But now it's picked three established start-ups that will get much bigger chunks of investments.

The three companies are: Buzzd, which uses GPS to provide city guide information and social networking; Digby, which builds "mobile storefronts" … Read more