SiliconBeat

Seagate Technology, the disk drive maker that’s in the process of cutting nearly 3,000 jobs, or about six percent of its worldwide work force, said Wednesday it would reduce the dividend it pays its shareholders by 75 percent, from 12 cents to 3 cents per share.

Seagate, a disk drive manufacturer that is based in the Cayman Islands but operates from Scotts Valley, lowered its guidance last month for its 2008 fourth quarter. Today it said preliminary results for that period show a net loss of $496 million on $2.3 billion in sales.

Last week the company removed its chief executive, William Watkins, replacing him with the company’s chairman and former CEO Stephen Luczo, and accepted the resignation of its chief operating officer.

Intel said Wednesday it would restructure its manufacturing operations, halting production at five older factories. The company will also close two existing assembly test facilities in Malaysia and the Phillipines.

The chip maker said it expects the restructuring will affect between 5,000 and 6,000 employees, although not all would necessarily lose their jobs as the company siad some would be offered positions at other facilities.

The move comes on top of rumors that Intel may post its first quarterly net loss in 22 years when it releases results in April for its current quarter.

Hewlett-Packard gave its boss, Mark Hurd, $25.4 million in cash last year, including a $1.45 million salary and $23.9 million in bonus money, according to compensation figures contained in the company’s proxy which it filed late on Inauguration Day.

Throw in stock awards that the company  valued at Read the rest of this entry »

Intel said that it is uncertain whether or not it will be able to report a profit for its current quarter, according to a memo its chief executive, Paul Otellini, sent to the chip makers employees last week, a copy of which was obtained by Bloomberg News Read the rest of this entry »

Tvia, the troubled fabless chip company that filed for bankruptcy back in October days after its directors voted themselves $20,000 for past services and then promptly quit, evidently had a face-to-face meeting with a committee of its shareholders on Jan. 14 at which time it explained that its goal is to  liquidate the company, and that it viewed bankruptcy court as Read the rest of this entry »

SCM Microsystems, the Fremont maker of smart card reader technology, slashed the $1 million cash bonus it had its board had awarded to its chief executive, Felix Marx, by two-thirds in an amended filing Tuesday that suggests he may not be around that much longer.

On Dec. 15, the board’s compensation committee approved a $1 million bonus for Marx that would be paid in three installments: Read the rest of this entry »

Affymax, the Palo Alto biopharmaceutical whose shares lost more than half their value in 2008, disclosed bonuses its board approved for its top officers last week, along with raises in their salary and new options grants.

Chief Executive Arlene Morris was awarded a cash bonus of $281,170 for the year, which represented 55 percent of her salary last year, along with an option to buy 80,000 shares with an exercise price of $10.99, the closing price on Jan. 15 when they were granted. She was also given a 3 percent raise in her annual salary, which now stands at $526,555.

The biggest raise on a percentage basis was given to the company’s chief medical officer, Anne-Marie Duliege, whose pay was raised 5 percent to $363,300. She was also given a bonus of $136,238, which represented 39 percent of her salary.

However, Duliege, along with Robert Venteicher, the company’s senior vice president of technical operations, were awarded a one-time bonus back in May equal to a third of their respective salaries at the time, payable upon the acceptance of the filing of the company’s new drug application with the Food and Drug Administration for its treatment for anemia associated with chronic renal failure.

Affymax, which became a public company in 2006, has wracked up $272.5 million in accumulated loss during its time, burning through nearly $49 million in its 2008 third quarter alone.

It still had $110.7 million in cash and short-term investments as of Sept. 30, down 34 percent from the same time the year before.

The California Budget Project launched its own blog last week and one of its first items had to do with a report from the National Bureau of Economic Research (”the folks who get to decide what is and is not a recession”) that questioned the valued of Enterprise Zones in creating jobs.

Evidence culled from California’s own Enterprise Zone Program by researchers at the Public Policy Institute conlused that “California’s enterprise zone program doesn’t increase employment and actually leads to a reduction in the number of businesses located within zones.”

The CBP points out that it “came to a similar conclusion in our 2006 report California’s Enterprise Zones Miss the Mark, and last year, the Legislative Analyst’s Office recommended phasing out enterprise zone incentives.”

Most of downtown San Jose lies in such a zone.

“With California facing a $40 billion plus budget shortfall, one might reasonably ask why neither the Governor’s proposed budget nor the Democratic leadership of the legislature’s alternatives for balancing the budget take on a program that cost the state $361 million in 2007 (the most recent year for which data are available) and that is not only ineffective, but appears to have the unintended consequence of reducing the number of businesses actually located within zones.

Addressing California’s massive budget shortfall will take tough choices. Eliminating ineffective tax breaks is a good place to start.”

PlanetOut, the San Francisco-based online media company that operates the Gay.com and PlanetOut.com Web sites, reported to the SEC last week that its chief executive, Karen Magee, approved plans on Jan. 9 to lay off 33 percent of the company’s work, including Chief Technology Officer William Bain.

Bain, who joined the company in February 2007, is entitled to severance equal to nine months of pay, which works out to about $187,500 based on the company’s most recent report on compensation and Bain’s employment agreement. That totals nearly a quarter of the $775,000 the company said it would take in charges for severance payments related to the planned layoffs. The other 78 or so employees being let go will split the remaining amount, which works out to an average payment for each of about $7,533 .

This time last year PlanetOut adopted a retention and severance plan for some of its management staff that the company estimated would cost it from $700,000 to $1.6 million to implement.

Align Technology, which let go about 10 percent of its employees last year, reported last week that it paid out nearly $500,000 in bonuses among its four of its top executives.

Thomas Prescott, the company’s chief executive, was awarded a $275,000 $244,325 bonus (Align corrects with higher figure in an amended filing), while Len Hedge, senior vice president of business operations, was given a $141,000 bonus. Roger George, the company’s chief lawyer, was given $107,000 in bonus cash and Kenneth Arola, the company’s chief financial officer, got a cash bonus of $101,000.

We previously posted regarding the company’s plans to relocate some of its Santa Clara operations to other countries.