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.

Hewlett-Packard and Electronic Data Services settled five EDS shareholder lawsuits filed in
response to the proposed merger of the two companies, according to a release HP put out Friday announcing approval of the HP-EDS merger by the European Commission.

The lawsuits were brought by shareholders who questioned the deal’s valuation and who urged that EDS put itself up for auction in hopes of attracting a higher bid, something plaintiffs said terms of the deal
prohibited.

As part of the settlement, HP and EDS said that the closing of the merger will not occur prior to Read the rest of this entry »