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(Germany) DHL will eliminate 560 jobs in Germany as a result of the insolvency of German retailer Arcandor, the company announced.

Source: Joc.com

The prospect of an in-depth European antitrust review of its acquisition of Sun Microsystems Inc.  could add to the challenges Oracle Corp. faces integrating the server, storage and software giant.

The European Commission, the European Union’s competition body, is hesitating on whether to clear the database giant’s $7.4 billion deal to buy Sun or launch a full probe that could take up to four months to complete, according to a person familiar with the authority’s thinking. The commission must decide by the end of Thursday.

Source: DowJones, WSJ

(EU): Unemployment in the 16 countries that use the euro rose in July to the highest in more than 10 years, showing that despite signs of recovery, the European economy continues to struggle. The jobless rate in the euro zone rose to 9.5 percent in July, the highest since May 1999, from 9.4 percent in June, Eurostat, the European Union’s statistical service, said Tuesday in Luxembourg.

Source: NYTimes

Swedish Bionic Commando and Terminator: Salvation developer GRIN has shed light on widespread media reports of trouble at the studio, announcing today that it must close down completely due to cash flow issues.

With titles including Ballistics, Bandits, Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 1 and 2 for PC, Bionic Commando Rearmed and Terminator: Salvation under its belt, the company has seen a considerable rise in the last few years.

Source: Gamasutra

The Munich-based company, once one of the world’s biggest fashion brands, german fashion company Escada AG said it will probably file for bankruptcy protection Thursday. Escada operates 182 of its own shops and 225 franchise shops in more than 60 countries, employing about 2,300 people.

Source: Forbes, AP

Unemployment in the 16 countries using the euro rose to a 10-year high of 9.4 percent in June, according to data released Friday. The increase was less than expected, however, following measures by some governments to combat the economic crisis.

Source: NYTimes

Thousands of people took to the streets to protest a decision by Diageo, the drinks giant, to shuts its Johnnie Walker bottling plant. The firm has announced that it will close the plant in the town, which has been linked with Johnnie Walker since 1820, with the loss of 700 jobs.

A further 200 jobs are to go with the closure of its distillery in Port Dundas, Glasgow, although 400 new jobs would be created at a packaging plant in Fife.

Source: The Daily Telegraph

Some 21,000 positions across Europe may be eliminated if Opel is sold to Magna International Inc., the Canadian car-parts maker that was picked by Germany as its preferred bidder, Bild Zeitung reported, citing a letter from Opel’s works council based in Ruesselsheim, Germany.

Source: Bloomberg

(Newport, UK) Workers were last night occupying a wind turbine factory for the sixth day in protest at the imminent closure of the plant.
The Danish owners of Vestas Wind Systems factory say the plant will close ‘within days’, with the loss of 525 jobs, because the UK market for turbines is too small.

Source: DailyMail

~News submitted by upthecreek

Chinese auto maker BAIC, which is offering 922 million dollars for a majority stake in Opel, plans to build a plant in China and cut jobs in Europe if its bid succeeds, a report said.

According to German reports Carl-Peter Forster, head of GM Europe, has said he hopes Opel will be bought by Canadian auto parts manufacturer Magna by mid-July, adding that the Canadian firm had a “considerable lead” on other possible buyers.

Source: AFP

British Airways PLC announced Friday it will ground aircraft, slash seat numbers and postpone taking delivery of a dozen new Airbus A380 superjumbos as it faces a recession-driven decline in passengers. British Airways, which employs 40,000 people, is looking to cut 2,000 flight attendants and 1,500 ground workers.

Source: GoogleNews, AP

Oracle Corp plans to lay off up to 1,000 workers in Europe, or about 1 percent of its global staff, as the recession erodes the giant software company’s earnings, French news agency AFP reported on Thursday.

Source: Reuters

The high-tech industry might finally be hitting rock bottom, according to Forrester Research, which Tuesday forecast global IT spending to decline by nearly 11% in 2009 before vendors and end-user organizations begin to see some signs of recovery later this year and early next.

Source: NetworkWorld

Oracle Corp.’s fiscal fourth-quarter profit declined 7.2% as the stronger dollar continued to weigh on results. New license revenue, a key measure of software growth, dropped 13%. Oracle’s stock has been rebounding since hitting a three-year low in March, shares were up 2.8% to $20.44

Source: WSJ

U.S. and European stocks tumbled, sending the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index down the most in two months, as the World Bank said the recession will be deeper than previously forecast.

Source: Bloomberg

Magna, the Canadian car-parts maker that’s competing with Fiat SpA in its bid for for General Motors Corp.’s Opel. Officials said as many as 11,000 jobs may be lost across Europe, including 2,600 in Germany.

Source: Bloomberg

Fiat SpA (F.MI) said Friday its offer for General Motors‘ (GM) Adam Opel AG unit would result in less than 10,000 job cuts, meaning the reduction of workers is similar to that of its main challenger, Magna International Inc.

Source: CNNMoney

SAP AG, the world’s biggest maker of business-management software, said first-quarter license revenue plunged 33 percent, more than analysts anticipated.
SAP has frozen salaries and plans to cut 3,000 jobs this year, the first redundancies since it was founded. Rival Oracle Corp. said last month its new software license sales fell 6 percent in the quarter ended Feb. 28.

Source: Bloomberg

IBM is planning to axe thousands of jobs in Britain, Germany and Ireland as part of a broader move to shift much of its workforce to cheaper outlets in eastern Europe, China, India and South America, the Observer has learned.

IBM workers in India earn an average $5,000 a year, compared with between $50,000 and $80,000 for a similar job in the US.

The expected European job cuts come on top of 5,000 recent layoffs at IBM in America. The US cuts brought the total number of redundancies on IBM’s home turf to around 9,600 for the first three months of the year.

Source: Guardian

(Russia, Izhevsk) Russian auto maker IZH-Auto plans to cut up to 5,000 jobs in April or about 90% of the company’s workforce after Auto-VAZ abandoned its efforts to acquire IZH-Auto earlier this year.

AutoVAZ (Automaker, Russia), 25% of AutoVAZ owned by Renault [Euronext: RNO]