If life is a cement trampoline, then Fairchild Semiconductor just performed a flat back landing. It’s hand forced by those oft-cited “market conditions,” the company said Friday it is sacking 12 percent of its workforce, or 1,100 people, in an attempt to reduce expenses and spread holiday cheer. Fairchild (FCS) reduced its guidance as well. It had been expecting $338 million to $360 million in sales for its fiscal fourth quarter. Now it expects just $320 million. Fairchild is the latest semiconductor company to temper its estimates as demand for the computers and telecommunications gear in which its chips are...
Jeff Gilbert with WWJ 950 AM had a chance to talk to UAW President Ron Gettelfinger just minutes ago after a meeting with UAW local heads on reexamination of their contracts (including nixing of the Jobs Bank, as we'd predicted) with the not-so-Big Three. Gilbert asked him what he'd be doing next. His response? He's heading to the airport tomorrow morning. That's right, while the CEOs of each of the U.S. automakers are driving to tomorrow's Congressional hearing, Ron'll be flying the friendly skies to Washington, DC. Apparently either the UAW hates the American taxpayer or Ron's just not so...
Filed under: Law, Bank of America (BAC), Housing Everyone cheered when Countrywide Financial, owned by Bank of America (NYSE: BAC), agreed to modify loans under a settlement with 11 state attorneys general reached in October. Everyone, that is, except the people who held those mortgages and stood to lose hundreds of millions of dollars as a result of slashed balances and reduced interest rates. So Greenwich Financial Services has filed a lawsuit in a New York state court, arguing that Countrywide does not have the right to unilaterally modify as many as 400,000 loans. “Loan modifications have been occurring...
Personal Computer Environments Photo credit to ifyr Voodoo Ergonomics To aid in proper positioning, Ergonetics has a number of products to help gain support. I spoke with Tony Biafore who has been in the business 25 years, plus currently contracts with the U.S. Department of Labor to help with their in-house ergonomics program. Tony warns, “There is no such thing as an ergonomic product—it is all in how you use things.......
Plaxico Burress is one of the biggest reasons the Giants won the Super Bowl and is one of the best receivers in the NFL. But his antics off the field are no longer worth the trouble. After last season’s Super Bowl victory, the Giants rewarded Burress with a 5-year/$35 million deal and since contracts in the NFL are not guaranteed, they can choose to terminate that deal at any time. That time should come now. It’s not just the latest incident where he shot himself in the leg; it’s the total package. Since being giving a huge contract, Burress...
The newspaper industry in the U.S. continues to shrink at an alarming rate. According to the Newspaper Association of America,, total industry advertising (both print and online) in the third quarter was $8.9 billion, down 18 percent from the year before. The oniine portion of that was $750 million, down 3 percent. So far in the first three quarters of 2008, the industry’s total advertising revenues have shrunk by $5 billion to $27.8 billion. Print advertising has been declining for ten straight quarters, but this marks only the second quarter that online advertising also went down. More concerning is...
I've been using the Zipcar service for about 18 months. Zipcar is a shared car rental service where you can rent cars for an hour or more at locations that are typically nearby where you live or work. If you are new to the service, check out my video review from last year. I've used the service in Philly and in San Francisco and generally find that those Zipcar cars are much cleaner and better looked after than the ones in NYC. Several months ago we received an alert email from Zipcar that prices would be increasing because of...
It seems like TELUS is feeling pressure to make up for the huge amounts of money it has been pouring into marketing the BlackBerry Storm over the past month or so. According to one of our sources, Telus is at least 97.38% set to sell the BlackBerry Storm on par with the high price they’re charging for the HTC Touch Pro. Starting at $649.99 with no contract and $599.99, $549.99, and $299.99 on contracts ranging from 1 to 3 years, Telus is sure to rake in at least a decent amount of cash just before the holidays. But is...
Once a week, as a part of Startup Reactor, Mark Hager will provide us with a working journal of what life has been like working on his startup, Age In Place. All feedback is greatly appreciated. Thanks for the great suggestions we had last week. You’ve given us a couple of practical ideas we can use and we really appreciate the feedback. This week was slow and steady. It probably sounds boring, but after the last few weeks, we’ll take it. We were able to make headway on some items that have been hanging over our heads, including accomplishing...
The Commerce Department announced the gross domestic product shrank at a 0.5% rate between July and September. The AP reports, "That was weaker than the 0.3 percent rate of decline first estimated a month ago, and marked the worst showing since the economy contracted at a 1.4 percent pace in the third quarter of 2001, when the nation was suffering through its last recession." Americans cut their spending at a 3.7%, a higher rate than initially reported (and the highest rate since 1980) and the AP adds the data is "further evidence that the country is almost certainly in the...
Filed under: Fiber It's incredibly obvious that one of Verizon's main opportunities for growth in FiOS TV is locking down contracts with housing facilities and apartment complexes, and while we've seen some small to medium-scale rollouts before, this one takes things to a whole 'nother level. Last year, the provider inked a deal with Aimco that would eventually bring fiber-based FiOS services to residents of some 27,000 apartments in 11 states across the nation. Now, 100 Aimco properties from coast to coast will be lit up with FiOS TV / internet / digital voice services prior to the onset of...
Rumor of the day today is that even Google is not as immune to the recession as we used to believe with 500 people already laid off and a total of 10 thousand to be affected as well. And while the blogosphere is actively engaged in a conversation about the huge number of layoffs, everyone agrees that the rumor is most probably wrong and the number of people will not reach anything near 10,000. The figure of 10,000 itself arrives from the fact that Google has 10 thousand people working for the company as temporary workers, or contractors without all...
