SiliconBeat

When John Thompson stepped down as CEO of Symantec last year, there was serious speculation that he would be tapped by newly elected President Barack Obama for the job of commerce secretary or some tech-related government gig. Now it turns out he is going to work for the feds, but in a somewhat different field.

Thompson, a veteran tech executive who’s also been an active supporter of Democratic causes, was appointed this week by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to serve on a Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, created by Congress to investigate the causes of the nation’s economic mess. Pelosi, D-San Francisco, also named Phil Angelides, the former California state treasurer, and Brooksley Born, the former chairwoman of the Commodities Futures Trading Commission.

All told, the panel has ten members, appointed by Democratic and Republican leaders in the House and Senate. It sounds like they have plenty of work ahead, with a full report due by the end of 2010. But it’s apparently not a full-time job; Thompson is still serving as chairman of Symantec’s board.

The head analyst of commercial mortgages at Deutsche Bank Securities told Reuters today that commercial real estate markets in the U.S. cities could fall as much as 50 percent from their peak in 2007 and that they probably won’t recover until 2017.

“The froth is still working itself out,” said Read the rest of this entry »

Integrated Silicon Solution, the fabless San Jose chip company that designs devices used in digital consumer electronics, networking, mobile communications, and automobiles, reported a 46 percent drop in sales for its fiscal 2009 second quarter Tuesday, saying that demand weakened some more in all of its markets during the March quarter.

“However, we believe demand has now Read the rest of this entry »

A day before it is set to host a visit by the Congressman from its district, Adept Technology filed word today with the SEC that its CEO, John Dulchinos, would be taking a second 20 percent hit to his salary on top of the one he took in January, while its other executives would have their base pay cut 10 percent.

For Dulchinos, that means annual pay at a rate of Read the rest of this entry »

Applied Micro Devices became the latest victim of the bankruptcy of Spansion, a company it helped bring into being in a joint venture with Fujitsu that eventually was spun out into a separate public company.

As part of its reorganization, Spansion filed a motion in which it indicated that it does not intend to Read the rest of this entry »

The compensation committee of Echelon’s board of directors has decided to “forgo specific financial or operating performance requirements” under its management bonus plan this year, “given the current uncertain economic environment.”

Instead, all its named officers will need to do to receive their bonuses, which are to be paid out in shares of company stock, is to Read the rest of this entry »

Palm is expecting sales for its just-ended fiscal 2009 third quarter to be no more than $90 million, far below the $158 million average analyst forecast, and below the $100 million that was the lowest forecast among the 20 analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters.

The news, released after markets closed, sent Palm’s shares down 10 percent to around $6.62, according to Yahoo Finance.

The company blamed 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 »

If job anxiety has a sound, it just got louder in Silicon Valley today when its largest company reported an unexpectedly dramatic slowdown in sales for its fiscal 2009 first quarter. One result is that the company is “reducing base pay and certain benefits across the company” beginning this quarter, according to remarks Cathie Lesjak made on the company’s earnings conference call this afternoon.

After the call was over, HP distributed more details of the pay reductions, including Read the rest of this entry »

Aehr Test Systems, the Fremont maker of systems for burning-in and testing integrated circuits, said Thursday it has taken “a series of actions designed to substantially reduce” its operating expenses, including cutting 20 percent of its employees, or about two dozen based on the 123 employees the company reported having at the end of its 2008 fiscal year last May.

The company said it’s also reducing Read the rest of this entry »