Tag Archive for Layoffs

| April 5, 2009
Comments Off on Tech Layoffs Continue to Mount

Tech Layoffs Continue to Mount

Tech Layoffs Continue to Mount351,202 families’ lives have been disrupted in the tech sector since October 2008, when the banks lead us into the current depression recession economic downturn.  32,820 layoffs have been announced in the tech sector during March 2009.

The tech layoff leaders for March 2009

The March total is the lowest since the depression recession economic downturn started.

  • February 2009 = 48,064
  • January 2009 = 150,014
  • December 2008 = 36,278
  • October 2008 = 50,204

This does not include the chaos the President Obama’s abandonment of the working class, by sending GM and Chrysler into likely bankruptcy. We are seeing the further dismemberment of the middle class as Chrysler has outsourced its IT to India’s  Tata Consultancy Services in “a multi-year contract” worth about $120 million.

Chrysler layoffs

Chrysler’s remaining 2,100 person information technology department, mostly in Auburn Hills, MI will immediately lose 200 salaried technology workers. The balance of the layoffs will come from the ranks of contract workers in that department. They will leave in greater numbers, but Jan Bertsch Chrysler vice president and chief information officer didn’t offer specifics in the Detroit News article.

Some employees may be hired by Tata or Computer Sciences, she said, and some work will be moved entirely off-site. According to the media, Tata will provide support, maintenance, and services that “will encompass a portion of the functional areas within Chrysler, such as Sales and Marketing and Shared Services.”

 

Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.

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| March 31, 2009
Comments Off on IBM Plans Layoffs, Seeks Stimulus

IBM Plans Layoffs, Seeks Stimulus

IBM Plans Layoffs, Seeks StimulusIBM is planning layoffs of 5,000 high-skill U.S. workers in its Global Business Services unit, transferring some of the work they performed to India, according to media reports. The cuts will affect mainly information technology and consulting work in such areas as customer relations management and supply chain management, says Lee Conrad, national coordinator of Alliance@IBM,

IBM layoffsArmonk NY-based IBM has been eliminating U.S based jobs for many years. IBM has previously reduced U.S. employment by 6,000 workers in 2008. Since 2003, the company has hired approximately 90,000 people in India and more than 5,000 in Brazil to do IT and business-process outsourcing [BPO] services work.

IBM is working to secure pieces of the give-away American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 $787 billion stimulus measure enacted in February. IBM CEO Samuel J. Palmisano was one of 13 executives who met with President Barack Obama in January in an appearance aimed at pressuring the House of Representatives to pass the economic stimulus bill. IBM is seeking a share of the $8 billion the U.S. plans to spend on high-speed rail and part of the $20 billion in the stimulus plan to digitize the U.S. healthcare system. as well as resurrecting BPL as earlier noted here The give-away American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 includes $11 billion to be spent on ‘smart grid‘ systems to monitor and manage the nation’s electrical network.

he American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA)According to CIO Today, some economists have estimated that taxpayers are paying an average of $225,000 for each job created in the economic stimulus package. According to Martin Kenney, a professor of political economy at the University of California, Davis,: “Taxpayers are saying, ‘I don’t want to give them money if they’re moving jobs offshore.'”

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The give-away American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 is turning out to be a $787 billion bailout of dubious firms like AIG and IBM and just keeps getting worse and worse for those of us who still work in America.

 

Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.

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| February 8, 2009
Comments Off on Tech Layoff Losses Continue to Mount

Tech Layoff Losses Continue to Mount

Tech Layoff Losses Continue to MountChannelWeb Insider has been tracking which technology companies have given layoff notices. According to the site, technology firms have eliminated at least 205,000 positions since October 2008.

This does not include small and mid-sized technology firms and the VAR community.

  • January 2009 has been the most brutal for tech layoffs with at least 124,320 positions eliminated.
  • October 2008 with 46,281 positions eliminated.
  • November 2008 saw 21,433 workers sacked by technology companies.
  • December 2008 The holiday spirit held sway in when most companies except ATT minimized layoffs. ATT eliminated 12,000 of the 13,095 positions eliminated in the last month of 2008.

Layoff rogue’s gallery

Among the firms in the rogue’s gallery of layoffs between October 2008 and January 2009 are:

  1. Circuit City with 37,400 layoffs
  2. HP with 24,600 layoffs
  3. NEC with 20,000 layoffs
  4. ATT with 12,000 layoffs
  5. Dell with 8,900 layoffs
  6. Sprint/Nextel with 8,000 layoffs
  7. Hitachi with 7,000 layoffs
  8. Intel with 6,000 layoffs
  9. Philips with 6,000 layoffs
  10. Google with 5,100 layoffs

We can hope that CEOs with their multi-million dollar salaries such as HP’s Mark Hurd who made over $42.5 million in 2008 or Sprint/Nextel’s Gary D. Forsee who made over $40 million or ATT’s Randall Stephenson who made over $21.9 million in 2007 actually understand their actions disrupt the lives of over a quarter of million real families when they eliminate jobs.

 

Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.

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| January 14, 2009
Comments Off on Nortel Declares Bankruptcy

Nortel Declares Bankruptcy

Chinese hackers had widespread access to Nortel's corporate computer networkUpdated 02-14-12 The Wall Street Journal reported that for nearly a decade before Nortel collapsed  Chinese hackers had widespread access to its corporate computer network.

According to the article, the hackers used seven passwords stolen from top Nortel executives, including the chief executive. The suspected Chinese hackers penetrated Nortel’s computers at least as far back as 2000 and over the years downloaded technical papers, research-and-development reports, business plans, employee emails, and other documents.

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Updated 03-12-09 WirelessWeek is citing The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Nortel is in talks to sell its core wireless equipment business as well as a separate unit that builds telecom systems for offices, according to anonymous sources in the WSJ.

The WSJ reported that Nortel is talking to Nokia Siemens Networks, to sell its wireless business. Avaya and Siemens Enterprise Communications, a joint venture of Siemens and technology private equity firm Gores Group, are interested in the company’s enterprise unit. Cisco Systems reportedly looked at the enterprise unit but wasn’t expected to bid. Nortel declined to comment.

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Nortel Declares Bankruptcy113-year-old Canadian technology firm Nortel filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy today. Nortel’s losses in the third quarter ballooned to $3.41 billion and 1,300 people had to be let go. CEO and President Mike Zafirovski wrote on the company’s Website. “Most importantly, Nortel is still very much in business.”

Next steps for the former Northern Telecom may include selling various business units or receiving a capital investment as a way to go private, According to Avi Cohen, managing partner at analyst firm Avian Securities, on TheStreet.com, “The most likely bidders for Nortel’s assets are Ericsson, Huawei (002502), Nokia Siemens, and Cisco (CSCO). We believe Alcatel-Lucent (ALU) and Motorola are less likely bidders because they are struggling with their own challenges and would have a hard time financing such a purchase.”

UBS analyst Maynard Um speculated on CED that the acquisition of Nortel by Huawei would be a possible outcome giving the Chinese firm a significant increase in market access in North America. However, this scenario may run into trouble with the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. (CFIUS) regulations.

 

Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.

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