Silicon Image is implementing its third layoff in a year, according to a filing today with the SEC in which the Sunnyvale chip maker disclosed its decision last Friday to get rid of about 80 employees, or 13 percent of the 610 employees it reported having at the end of 2008.
The move is expected to cost the company between Read the rest of this entry »
Xenoport, the Santa Clara biopharmaceutical, reported positive preliminary results today from a Phase 2 clinical trial of its treatment for patients with spasticity related to spinal cord injury. Patients given twice-daily doses showed “statistically significant improvement” compared to those receiving a placebo.
The company also said the drug candidate, arbaclofen placarbil, was Read the rest of this entry »
Bell Microproducts, the San Jose electronics distributor whose shares were delisted from Nasdaq because the company was persistently delinquent in filing required financial documents with the SEC, became current with its annual financial filings Monday when it published results for fiscal years 2007 and 2008.
Turns out that 2007 was Read the rest of this entry »
Spansion, the bankrupt Sunnyvale flash memory maker that gave its executives a retention-based pay raise in February the same day it fired 3,000 workers, named its fourth chief financial officer in less than five months.
Randy Furr was named to replace Nathan Sarkisian, who served as interim CFO since May 20 when he replaced the previous Read the rest of this entry »
Here’s some food for thought: A new survey shows that employers face a huge challenge in managing those folks who have NOT been laid off. It’s almost like a shadow of the unemployment cloud, left to linger behind at the workplace. We’ve all seen it and felt it, whether it’s more like survivor’s guilt for keeping your job while your colleagues are shown the door; or that nagging worry that you might be the next one sent down to talk with HR. Read the rest of this entry »
Bruce Peacock resigned today from the board of directors after serving less than two years there, where he also chaired its audit committee and was deemed its “financial expert” as defined by SEC rules. The resignation would leave the company with only two directors serving on its audit committee, a technical violation of a Nasdaq requirement that it be staffed by at least three independent directors.
Peacock, a venture partner at SV Life Sciences Advisers since Read the rest of this entry »
As Kris reminds us here, unemployment is not without its time pressures. Many of you, like he, are living a life these days pretty much dependent on the oxygen of your regular unemployment checks. But as Kris well knows, they won’t keep coming forever: Read the rest of this entry »
That $7.4 billion deal for Oracle to buy Sun Microsystems will take a little longer to win Department of Justice approval. It seems anti-trust regulators are still scrutinizing how the sale would affect Sun’s Java software platform, which is widely used by IBM and many other companies.
Oracle, however, is doing its best to downplay any concerns. The company got out in front of the news with a press release late Friday that quoted one of its attorneys, Dan Wall:
“We’ve had a very good dialogue with the Department of Justice and we were almost able to resolve everything before the Second Request deadline,” Wall said. “All that’s left is one narrow issue about the way rights to Java are licensed …”
In slightly more neutral terms, Sun filed a report with the SEC this morning that said the DOJ had issued on Friday a “second request,” or a request for additional information on the deal. The effect of that request is to extend the DOJ review period, Sun explained, adding that it is gathering information to respond to the request.
The Obama administration has been giving a little closer scrutiny to some anti-trust issues, compared with its predecessor, according to some experts. Still, that doesn’t mean the Oracle-Sun deal won’t go through.
Wall said in his statement that the Java issue “is never going to get in the way of the deal. I fully expect that the investigation will end soon and not delay the closing of the deal this summer.”
It’s a sunny day in Silicon Valley, and still we can’t help thinking about clouds. Maybe it’s because in recent days, some big tech companies have been talking up their efforts in the business of cloud computing.
Cloud computing, in which software and services are accessed from a remote data center “cloud,” has been the focus of much industry hype. But all that talk has left many businesses uncertain about how to use the technology, as IDC analyst Frank Gens said in a recent statement. Both IBM and Hewlett-Packard clearly see this as an opportunity.
HP, which already sells hardware and software for data centers, rolled out a new package of consulting services earlier this week, including workshops and “road maps” of recommendations on design, testing and security for businesses considering the use of cloud-based services or building their own clouds for internal use.
IBM, meanwhile, announced its own portfolio of new cloud products and services just last week — including software and services that customers can access from IBM’s data centers, services based on internal clouds that IBM can build and run for its clients, and systems of hardware and software designed to work together.
Even Larry Ellison got into the discussion during Oracle’s quarterly earnings call this week, as he told analysts that Oracle is preparing to make more of its business software available on a subscription basis, to compete with companies like Salesforce.com. Ellison said Oracle will host the software on its own data centers or install it on a client’s data center, with Oracle operating it as a service.
One analyst said that sounded like Ellison was talking about cloud computing, which the Oracle CEO has famously derided in the past. Ellison did not disagree.
And if that’s not enough cloud news, some top execs from HP, Amazon, Sun and other companies were trading ideas at the GigaOM Network’s Structure 09 conference in San Francisco this week. The Register had an interesting account .
An employee of Restoration Hardware must appear before the SEC to give sworn testimony in its investigation into possible insider trading involving her husband, a federal judge in San Francisco ruled today.
In May, Lena Yan, Read the rest of this entry »
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