Neither Sun nor IBM will confirm that the two companies are even in talks, but the two will reportedly announce their merger on Monday–not today as previously thought. And after the deal, then what? Massive layoffs, most likely.
Time was, there was a Silicon Graphics workstation on every desk in computationally-intense industries like chemistry and film production. No longer. This morning, SGI, which recently endured a brace of layoffs, filed for bankruptcy protection for a second time and sold itself to Rackable Systems, which makes server and storage products for midsize and large data centers, for $25 million in cash.
Looks like Sun is “aligning its business with the global economic climate” again… The company will sack 1,500 employees this week, a company spokesperson confirmed to Digital Daily. The move is part of the restructuring plan Sun announced last November and will affect “all functions, geographies and levels.”
Black Thursday fell on more than just IBM today. Agilent also announced layoffs this morning. The company plans to sack 2,700 employees–14 percent of its workforce.
When IBM CEO Sam Palmisano advised the Obama transition team that the $30 billion in information-technology stimulus handouts Big Blue is angling for could create more than 900,000 new jobs, he didn’t say they’d be created in India. Yet, apparently that’s the case. IBM is reportedly planning to sack “a large number” of employees in its Global Business Services division, shifting their duties overseas to workers in India.
Nokia is following up the voluntary redundancies it announced last month with a few involuntary ones. Its hand forced by the continued deterioration of the mobile phone market, the company said this morning that it will sack 1,700 employees.
Looks like that 27 percent year-over-year drop in net income Cisco reported earlier this month had dire consequences for the company’s workforce. The company sacked several hundred employees this week as part of what it describes variously as a “limited restructuring” and “targeted realignment of resources.”
More brutal news from Nortel today. The troubled telecommunications gear maker plans to sack an additional 3,200 workers world-wide over the coming months. Taken together with the company’s previously announced 1,800 layoffs, total job reductions will top out at 5,000.
Like Godzilla’s occasional rampages through Tokyo, the econalypse’s effect on Japan’s consumer electronics industry has been almost casual in its devastation, with Sony, NEC and Hitachi all announcing massive job cuts in the past few months. Today, Panasonic joined them. Hard hit by the global recession, Japan’s biggest consumer electronics company this morning warned of a $4.2 billion annual loss and said it plans to sack about 15,000 workers.
Rumor has it there are big games going on this weekend–at least one of which involves football players. The rest involve the usual players, though they might appear in different positions–and on different teams–from week to week. These games, most likely, will continue through Monday and beyond. Scores will be kept on an ongoing basis.
If there’s an award to be given for most layoffs handed out by a technology company in a recession, NEC may have just won it. This morning, the Japanese electronics giant said it will sack at least 20,000 workers world-wide as it struggles to shore up its business amid the worsening econalypse.
Though it reported a 13 percent increase in fourth-quarter profit that was comfortably ahead of market expectations, SAP plans to step up its cost-cutting in the coming year. The German business software provider will sack some 3,000 employees in the months ahead.
John Paczkowski has been poking fun at the tech industry and the personalities that drive it since 1997. From 1999 to 2007, he wrote the award-winning tech news Web log Good Morning Silicon Valley for the San Jose Mercury News, Silicon Valley's daily newspaper. Read more »
Here is a statement of my ethics and coverage policies. It is more than most of you want to know, but, in the age of suspicion of the media, I am laying it all out.
12:58 AM: Breakfast: Two schools of fish from Tokyo Bay. Calories: 782,000. How I was feeling when I ate this: confused, irradiated, hating my size.
11:37 AM: Exercise: “Taxi Stomp” (alternating legs, for 30 blocks). Calories burned: 148,900,183.
1983. The Beatles announce their first tour in thirteen years, but likewise announce that Michael Jackson will be going on tour with them as a one gigantic mega-concert event.
Best video mashup ever.
A Facebook Memorial
Wow.
Worth it for the Rickrolling photo alone.
Excellent.
Flughumor!
… you vacuous, toffee-nosed, malodorous perverts
Stephen Fry and zoologist Mark Carwardine meet the kakapo — a fat, flightless and very randy rare parrot.
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