Take a deep breath and repeat after me: The San Francisco Chronicle is not going to die. Say that five times, and then let’s understand why.
First, let’s look at the numbers. As usual, Alan Mutter did a great breakdown back in January explaining why what happened this week was going to happen eventually.
Read the rest of this entry »
Actel, the Mountain View chip maker, extended the deadline for director nominations a second time at the request of one of its largest shareholders, Ramius, a New York-based “alternative” investment firm that offered a detailed critique of Actel’s business back in November,
Actel first extended the deadline on Feb. 13 by a week to Feb. 20 but the day before that deadline Read the rest of this entry »
Symyx Technologies of Santa Clara has paid bonuses to five senior executives despite the fact that targets under the company’s performance plan for the year were not met. Nevertheless, the board’s compensation committee “determined it was appropriate to provide a discretionary bonus to recognize performance by individuals,” according to a filing the company made today with the SEC.
The discretionary bonus payments come after the company began a 15 percent reduction in force in December.
Among those getting bonus cash were Read the rest of this entry »
IPass chief executive Evan Kaplan said the company has “initiated a reduction in force that will affect a total of approximately 70 people from a global workforce of approximately 520,” in order to “free up resources” for strategic investments he wants to make to transition the supplier of remote access tools for mobile workers to “3G mobile broadband.”
A more prosaic reason given for the job cuts was Read the rest of this entry »
Lamassu Holdings, the Southern California investment firm that first disclosed holding a large chunk of Ditech Networks in December, has since offered to acquire the company outright, according to a filing today with the SEC. Not having gotten a proper respons and “Assuming that (its) offer will be completely ignored or dismissed without a thorough evaluation,” Lamassu intends to nominate two members to Ditech’s board at its next shareholder meeting.
In a letter sent to Ditech’s chief executive and board Feb. 20, Lamassu managing member Timothy Leehealey said he was “writing to express my surprise and disappointment Read the rest of this entry »
The valley’s base of public companies is set to shrink a bit more with the news today that Exar of Fremont, a maker of silicon electronic connection devices, has agreed to buy Hifn, the Los Gatos supplier of chips used to secure and compress data over networks and on storage systems.
Exar will give Hifn shareholders a chance to choose between Read the rest of this entry »
Map Pharmaceuticals, the Mountain View development stage pharmaceutical company, said today that the initial Phase 3 clinical trial for budesonide for the potential treatment of children with asthma did not meet expectations in either of the doses evaluated when compared with a placebo.
The study included Read the rest of this entry »
eSolar, the Pasadena startup funded by Google.org, Idealab and Oak Investment Partners, signed an agreenment with NRG Energy today to build a series of solar-thermal power plants in California and the Southwest U.S. When finished, the companies said, the plants will produce 500 MW of power, or enough for 400,000 homes.
NRG said it had invested $10 million to “develop, build, own and operate” 11 eSolar power plants on three different sites. The company will turn and sell the power to local utilities it said, without naming them.
NRG, based in New Jersey, operates 40 power plants that generate 24,000 MW of electricity, but this is its first solar venture.
eSolar uses concentrating solar power (CSP), where mirrors track the sun and reflect its light to a tower where water is boiled to make steam. That steam power a turbine and generates electricity.
Google.org invested $10 million in eSolar and BrightSource Energy of Oakland, another solar-thermal company using a similar technology.
You can read more at eSolar’s Web site.
NRG was the company that made an unsolicited offer to buy Calpine, the San Jose and Houston based energy company in May 2008. The deal was rejected by Calpine’s board.
Let me start by saying that I have a ton of respect for New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman. With that out of the way, let me also say that this weekend that Friedman floated one of the worst ideas I’ve heard in a long time.
I’m talking about his column, posted on Saturday, called “Start Up the Risk-Takers.” Read the rest of this entry »
Three years ago, Cadence Design Systems broke ground on the first structure to be built under the so-called North San Jose Vision 2030 Plan, which envisions 26.7 million square feet of new development on the city’s north side.
Now the five-story, 208,000 square-foot R & D building has been completed on the company’s campus at 2655 Seely Avenue. And executives at Cadence - whose products helps other companies make computer chips - are talking it up big time.
Designed to house employees previously located at four nearby buildings, the new building already is “resulting in many productive brainstorming sessions that spark innovation,” Cadence declared in a prepared statement.
That’s a good thing, because Cadence - like a lot of companies in the semiconductor industry these days - could use a little innovating, particularly on the financial front. It’s just reported fourth-quarter earnings weren’t pretty. It lost $1.64 billion. During the same period a year ago, it earned $120 million.
It’s Cadence Design Systems, the San Jose-based company, whose software and hardware helps other companies make computer chips. It just broke ground for a new five-story, 208,000 square foot research and development center on its campus
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