Business News Holding

Tag: people-and-jobs

  • Motorola to cut mobile staff by half


    Motorola is considering reducing the workforce in its mobile devices group by as much as 50 per cent.

    The company is reportedly set to start major layoffs this week that would reduce staff levels by half and is said to be dramatically scaling back its phone development as a whole.

    Nearly all development for smartphones is already believed to be switching exclusively to Android while Motorola’s own phone introductions may scale back to as few as 12 devices per year.

    The company is also reportedly shelving plans to have a booth at the CTIA show in April despite its being the premier cellphone event in the US, according to Phone Scoop.

    The cutbacks if accurate suggest increasingly desperate attempts to revive the company’s fortunes.

    In the last quarter, Motorola had a USD $397 million loss and phone sales by the American cellphone producer dropped by a third in just 12 months.

    Much of the blame for this has been put on substantial drops in high-end phones as well as the lack of a compelling low-end product.

    The company’s popular RAZR recently lost its top ranking in the US to the iPhone and BlackBerries.

  • EMC Cuts Jobs Despite Strong Results


    EMC is laying off 2,400 workers in a bid to streamline operations in the face of economic recession.

    The cuts represent about 7 per cent of its global 41,900 employee workforce.

    Despite the move, EMC is expected to post record quarterly revenue growth that will meet fourth-quarter expectations.

    The storage giant said in a statement that Q4 2008 revenues would total about USD $4 billion.

    This represents 4 per cent growth over the same period a year ago and an 8 per cent increase compared with the third quarter of 2008.

    EMC said the staff reductions were necessary to ensure it remained ahead of the downturn.

    The staffing cuts are expected to reduce expenses by USD $350 million in 2009 and USD $500 million by 2010.

    The company’s last redundancies took place in 2007, when it axed 1,350 jobs.

    At the time it said these were required because acquisitions had led to overlapping staff.

  • Western Digital Makes Cut-backs As Demand Weakens


    Western Digital is to cut 2,500 jobs, or about 5 per cent of its global work force, and will reduce executive pay as a result of the global economic situation.

    Citing weakening demand for its products, the hard drive maker the company now expects fiscal second-quarter sales of USD $1.7 billion to $1.8 billion, with a "consequent reduction in operating results."

    Western Digital said demand for the current quarter is "significantly below" what it expected when it issued revenue guidance in October.

    Previously it sales outlook was USD $2.03 billion to $2.15 billion.

    The company plans to reduce compensation by an unspecified amount for its executive officers, board of directors and senior management.

    Manufacturing operations will cease from December 20 through January 1 and manufacturing hours will be reduced by 20 per cent through employee attrition and reduction in the use of temporary workers and overtime shifts.

    It is also closing one of its three hard drive factories in Thailand and will close or sell one of two facilities in Malaysia.

    The measures, expected to be completed by the end of March, are expected to save about USD $150 million a year. Western Digital expects to take related charges of USD $150 million in the fiscal second and third quarters.

  • Palm Announces Successor To CFO Andy Brown


    Palm has announced that Douglas C. Jeffries has been appointed as the company’s Chief Financial Officer.

    Previously chief accounting officer at eBay, Jeffries will join Palm in January as replacement for Andy Brown.

    In addition to his role as chief accounting officer at eBay, Jeffries has held financial and information technology leadership roles at GenCorp, Red Herring Communications and Cardinal Health. Jeffries began his career at Price Waterhouse, is a CPA and holds an MBA from the University of Southern California.

    The executive changes come as Palm is about to launch what is being widely seen as the key to its future – a smartphone platform called Nova.

    It is also releasing an App Store for its Palm OS and Windows Mobile-based smartphones along the lines of Apple and Google’s software ventures.

    The beleaguered handset maker is beset by falling sales as it struggles in the smartphone market.

    In mid-2007, Palm hired Jon Rubenstein, formerly an Apple product development specialist who led development on the iMac and iPod, to help revive its fortunes.

    Rubenstein has said that Nova will bridge the market between enterprise-oriented BlackBerry devices from Research In Motion and more consumer-centric ones like Apple’s iPhone 3G.

  • Invitation To Exclusive Networking Event At The Broadband Business Forum


    Wireless and Smartphone.biz-news are hosting an exclusive networking cocktail event in conjunction with the Broadband Business Forum, being held in Rome, Italy.

    The event will bring together over 100 leading Wireless/Broadband industry figures drawn from exhibitors and decision-makers attending the Forum.

    To be held on December 2nd at 16:00, invitees will have the opportunity to exchange views, contacts, information and deals on the Wireless and Broadband market.

    If you would like to join us please confirm your participation here: www.bbfeurope.com/cocktail.html

    Broadband Business Forum 2008 is Europe’s premier tradeshow dedicated to analysing the evolution and regulation of fixed and mobile broadband. Last year’s event attracted more than 4,200 participants.

    Smartphone.biz-news provides wireless consumer electronic business news to professionals worldwide.

  • Pentadyne Promotes Kalev to CTO


    Flywheel energy storage systems manufacturer Pentadyne Power Corporation has promoted Claude Kalev to the position of Chief Technical Officer.

    Kalev was a co-founder of Pentadyne when the company was incorporated in 1998.

    But he only officially joined the company in 2002, as Vice President, Electrical Engineering.

    Kalev was also a co-founder and Vice President of Engineering at Quadradyne, a company established to provide testing services for high speed rotating machinery, state of the art magnetic bearing development, high vacuum system and molecular drag sleeve design.

    Prior to joining Pentadyne, Kalev was the Vice President of Engineering at Infrared Industries, Inc. where he led the development of a compact, portable 5-gas automotive analyzer.

    He also developed and patented a hand-held, high-speed, 5-gas analyzer for use as an on-board diagnostic and combustion tuning instrument. He also developed a state-of-the-art, automated calibration system for the analyzers.

    Other previous posts include roles at Capstone Turbine Corporation and Rosen Motors.

    Kalev is a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Tau Beta Pi, and Golden Key Honor Society. He earned his undergraduate degree in Electronic Engineering from the California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo.

  • Job Losses Expected At SanDisk


    SanDisk is about to announce job cuts of around 15 per cent of its staff – or between 450 to 500 employees.

    Quoting unnamed industry sources, Engadget reported today that the job losses were to reduce costs following a USD $155 million Q3 loss and sales that have sunk by 21 per cent year-on-year to USD $281 million.

    SanDisk has just announced a new technology that will allow solid state disk (SSD) drives to perform up to 100 times faster than they can now.

    Called ExtremeFFS (Flash File System), it will accelerate random write speeds by up to 100 times over existing systems.

    The technology will appear in SanDisk SSD drives from next year.

  • Wyless Appoints New Group CEO


    Wyless Group Holding announced this week that Rami Avidan was appointed group CEO as of 1 November 2008.

    Avidan has acted as a non-executive board director of Wyless Group for several years.

    As Group CEO he will have direct responsibility for all Wyless operations globally. Mr. Avidan previously served as COO of Cryptzone AB, a Swedish listed company.

    Michael Jeffries, chairman of Wyless plc, welcomed Avidan to the business.

    “His professional and industry experience will be invaluable in taking the Wyless business to the next level,” he said.

    Wyless Group Holding is the parent company of the expanding Wyless Mobile Data Network Group, with offices in the UK, Boston, Gothenburg and Malaga.

    Wyless, an international wireless data communications group, pioneered, developed and manages a global wireless data network, which enables organizations to securely and reliably communicate with their remote and mobile devices in over 120 countries, using a single network provider.

  • JOBS: Manager of Hardware Engineering with consumer video electronics experience


    Cisco’s Emerging Technologies Group (ETG) focuses on creating solutions in new and adjacent technology markets, and is looking for high energy, high impact individuals who want to help shape Cisco’s future by building our next USD $1B business.

    Consumer TelePresence is a new Business Unit being incubated in ETG, and we are currently seeking a Manager of Hardware Engineering to help lead this incubation through to a significant business. Leveraging technology developed for our enterprise TelePresence product, the fastest growing product in Cisco’s history, CTBU will bring to market a breakthrough, consumer version of TelePresence which will provide a unique, in-person experience when communicating with friends and relatives over the internet.

    Job Description:

    Reporting to the Director of Hardware of TSBU, the Manager of Hardware Engineering will be responsible for the following:

    • Build world-class engineering team
    • Work with product management, market development, and customers to develop, refine, validate, and prioritize product requirements and product roadmaps
    •Work with industrial design team to ensure constraints are met in developing compelling consumer designs.
    • Define product hardware architecture and system level designs based on product requirements and business model.
    • Work with director of software to ensure a complete system and make appropriate trade offs as a team
    • Develop product hardware functional specifications
    • Develop product prototype
    • Make strategic trade-offs in make-buy-partner technology decisions
    • Drive to develop and protect intellectual property for market leadership.
    • Lead development, launch and successful revenue growth of the product(s)
    • Develop, and adhere to, resource plans, schedule, and budget

    Requirements:
    • Previous multiple year experience in the consumer electronics market, bringing multiple successful products to market.
    • Experience with video, audio products and solutions.
    • Track record of developing “disruptive” products and bringing them to market
    • Very high technical competence, individual technical accomplishments with repeated, proven track record for product delivery
    • Entrepreneurial drive, demonstrated ability to achieve stretch goals in an innovative and fast paced environment
    • Strong leadership and management skills, ability to deliver results with a small, fast-paced teams, and ability to work across teams
    • Strong ability to stay in sync with key customer requirements and deliver products to meet the requirements, making appropriate trade-offs
    • Experience in building high performing engineering teams
    • Strong inter-personal skills and teamwork
    • Ability to work and thrive in a true “startup” mode

    Other desired qualifications include:
    • Work experience with successful startups
    • Brought products to market with cameras or displays
    • Experience with visual communications systems.

    This position is located in San Jose, CA, US

    Please click here for more information.

  • JOBS: Manager of Hardware Engineering with consumer video electronics experience


    Cisco’s Emerging Technologies Group (ETG) focuses on creating solutions in new and adjacent technology markets, and is looking for high energy, high impact individuals who want to help shape Cisco’s future by building our next USD $1B business.

    Consumer TelePresence is a new Business Unit being incubated in ETG, and we are currently seeking a Manager of Hardware Engineering to help lead this incubation through to a significant business. Leveraging technology developed for our enterprise TelePresence product, the fastest growing product in Cisco’s history, CTBU will bring to market a breakthrough, consumer version of TelePresence which will provide a unique, in-person experience when communicating with friends and relatives over the internet.

    Job Description:

    Reporting to the Director of Hardware of TSBU, the Manager of Hardware Engineering will be responsible for the following:

    • Build world-class engineering team
    • Work with product management, market development, and customers to develop, refine, validate, and prioritize product requirements and product roadmaps
    •Work with industrial design team to ensure constraints are met in developing compelling consumer designs.
    • Define product hardware architecture and system level designs based on product requirements and business model.
    • Work with director of software to ensure a complete system and make appropriate trade offs as a team
    • Develop product hardware functional specifications
    • Develop product prototype
    • Make strategic trade-offs in make-buy-partner technology decisions
    • Drive to develop and protect intellectual property for market leadership.
    • Lead development, launch and successful revenue growth of the product(s)
    • Develop, and adhere to, resource plans, schedule, and budget

    Requirements:
    • Previous multiple year experience in the consumer electronics market, bringing multiple successful products to market.
    • Experience with video, audio products and solutions.
    • Track record of developing “disruptive” products and bringing them to market
    • Very high technical competence, individual technical accomplishments with repeated, proven track record for product delivery
    • Entrepreneurial drive, demonstrated ability to achieve stretch goals in an innovative and fast paced environment
    • Strong leadership and management skills, ability to deliver results with a small, fast-paced teams, and ability to work across teams
    • Strong ability to stay in sync with key customer requirements and deliver products to meet the requirements, making appropriate trade-offs
    • Experience in building high performing engineering teams
    • Strong inter-personal skills and teamwork
    • Ability to work and thrive in a true “startup” mode

    Other desired qualifications include:
    • Work experience with successful startups
    • Brought products to market with cameras or displays
    • Experience with visual communications systems.

    This position is located in San Jose, CA, US

    Please click here for more information.