LayoffBlog.com

Unemployment in the San Francisco metropolitan area rose slightly to 9.5 percent in August from 9.4 percent in July, the state Employment Development Department reported Friday. The region, which includes San Francisco, Marin and San Mateo counties, had 5.4 percent unemployment in August. 2008.

Silicon Valley unemployment rose to 12 percent in August from 11.8 percent in July and 6.4 percent in August 2008.

Source: SFBusinessTimes

BAE systems said Wednesday that it is laying off 360 employees out of about 1,800 at its Coleman Avenue operation in Santa Clara — 20 percent of the workforce. The reduction is due to the Army’s cancellation of the Future Combat Systems Manned Ground Vehicle program, the company said.

Source: MercuryNews

Google CEO Eric Schmidt resigned from his post on Apple’s board of directors due to what Apple called a conflict of interest.

5 Reasons Schmidt Left Apple Board:

1. Apple’s rejection of Google Voice from the App Store;
2. The iPhone vs. Google Android rivalry is heating up;
3. Let’s not forget Apple’s App Store vs. Android Market;
4. Both Google and Apple are entrenched in the Web browser game;
5. Apple and Google will also soon compete in the OS market, too.

Source: ChannelWeb

Cisco Systems Inc. laid off several hundred employees on Thursday, as the company tries to control its costs amid declining sales.

Between 600 and 700 people were laid off at the company’s San Jose headquarters, according to a person familiar with the decision.

Source: WSJ

A homeless man is on trial in San Mateo County on charges that he smacked a fellow transient in the face with a skateboard as the victim was engaged in a conversation about quantum physics, authorities said Wednesday.

Source: SFGate

The feds are investigating whether Google, Yahoo (YHOO), Apple (AAPL), Genentech (DNA) and other throughout the industry tech companies illegally agreed not to recruit on another’s top talent.

Source: Reuters

Update 1 (4-20-2009)
According to Reuters: “Oracle Corp plans to enter the computer hardware market by buying Sun Microsystems Inc for more than $7 billion, swooping in after Sun’s talks with IBM fell apart.”

Update 2 (4-20-2009)
According to Reuters: “Microsoft’s chief executive said on Monday he was ‘very surprised‘ by Oracle Corp’s plans to buy Sun Microsystems Inc.”

According to WSJ: “Given Sun’s relatively low operating margins, there’s no doubt plenty of fat to cut in areas like sales and marketing.”

According to ComputerWorld: “More layoffs are expected at Sun Microsystems Inc. as a result of Oracle Corp.’s planned $7.4 billion acquisition, with one Wall Street analyst predicting today that as many as 10,000 people could lose their jobs at the Silicon Valley icon.”

~ LayOffBlog.com: Please feel free to share your comments ~

According to Forbes: “When titans collide, blood runs. And as rumors circulated Friday that IBM and Sun Microsystems are inching toward a deal to sell the Silicon Valley computing pioneer to Big Blue for close to $7 billion, IT industry watchers began speculating on how the integration would proceed.”

IBM could lay off as much as a third of Sun’s staff to eliminate redundancies–a total of more than 10,000 employees–or the equivalent in combined Sun and IBM job cuts, according to Forrester Research analyst James Staten.
Source: Forbes

According to Valleywag: “One tipster tells us there are “major layoffs” at Apple. Another writes that “all sales teams have mandatory meetings today” and that “HR booked conference rooms in Cupertino.” Is Apple cutting salespeople loose?”

~News submitted by Jack R.

According to BusinessWeek: “New Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz just announced in a detail-free blog post the much-anticipated shakeup of Yahoo’s management ranks. Although she didn’t say what the reorganization would involve beyond making the setup simpler, some current executives clearly won’t be part of it. This morning, Yahoo said Chief Financial Officer Blake Jorgensen will be leaving, only a day after he made a presentation at a tech conference.”

Yahoo structure changes in breif:

• Tech and Product groups will be combined
• There are now two regions – North America and International
• Mobile will continue to be a key priority for Yahoo
• A Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) role has been created
• A new group created: Customer Advocacy group
• A new team created: Service Engineering & Operations (SE&O) team
• Changes in HR led by David Windley, Legal led by Michael Callahan, Chief of stuff: Joel Jones, CFO position: vacant
• This structure is designed to last two to four years

According to Channel Web: “Cisco Systems (NSDQ:CSCO) confirmed to Channelweb.com that it has eliminated a number of positions in the U.S. and abroad as part of its realignment and restructuring initiative that will chop $1 billion out of its operating budget throughout fiscal year 2009.

Cisco would not confirm on Wednesday how many positions were cut. Sources, however, said employees started receiving notifications on Tuesday, and roughly 250 of the positions eliminated were based in San Jose, Calif. Overall, sources said, the number of employees affected was fewer than the 1,500 to 2,000 that Cisco CEO John Chambers hinted at on the company’s earnings call for the second fiscal quarter.”

According to CNNMoney: “The global economic downturn will continue to hammer computer networking giant Cisco Systems Inc., chief executive John Chambers said Wednesday.

In its current quarter, Cisco expects to see revenue decline between 15% and 20%, he said in a conference call with analysts.”

“We are not going to consider (layoffs) at this time,” chief executive John Chambers said. But he added, that if Cisco was forced to cut jobs, it would likely be a large cut of about 10% of its workforce.

• Cisco employed 67,318 workers worldwide at the end of the second quarter.

According to CNBC: “Electronic Arts, based in Redwood City, California, said it would cut 1,100 jobs, or about 11 percent of its workforce, higher than the 1,000 it announced in December. It also plans to close 12 facilities as it narrows its product portfolio.”

~News submitted by upthecreek

“Coupons, Inc., the leading provider of interactive coupon marketing and technology solutions and owner of the Coupons.com DigitalFSI Network, has appointed Steve Horowitz as Chief Technology Officer.

Horowitz, 41, joins Coupons, Inc. from Google where he led the engineering team that built the Android mobile operating system and platform which launched with T-Mobile late last year. At Coupons, Inc., Horowitz will oversee all of the Company’s worldwide engineering, product management and technology efforts as it expands its digital coupons and promotions platform.”, according to the company press-release

According to WSJ blog: “Mr. Horowitz, remains enthusiastic about Android, which enables phones to run advanced entertainment and productivity services”

Google is laying off 100 recruiters and closing some engineering offices, as the downturn continues to take its toll. The layoffs, disclosed Wednesday in company blog posts, are a very rare step for Google, which said in October that it is still hiring, but much more cautiously. The company has also recently let go a significant number of contractors in areas ranging from public relations to engineering, according to Reuters and WSJ

Update 1 (1-14-2009): According to official Google blog: “Our first step to address this was to wind down almost all our contracts with external contractors and vendors providing recruiting services for Google. However, after much consideration, we have with great regret decided that we need to go further and reduce the overall size of our recruiting organization by approximately 100 positions.”

Update 2 (1-14-2009): Google’s Changes to Engineering in 2009

According to CNN Money: “Yahoo Inc. announced Tuesday that it had hired veteran technology executive Carol Bartz as its new CEO.”

“Bartz ran software company Autodesk (NASDAQ:ADSK) for 14 years, most recently serving as executive chairwoman. San Rafael, Calif.-based Autodesk, with just over 7,000 employees worldwide, is about half the size of Yahoo.”

“Bartz is taking over an embattled Yahoo. In mid-November, co-founder Jerry Yang stepped down after failed attempts to improve the company’s performance.”

WebGuild reports: Today, in documents obtain by the Associated Press, Google filed a paper document with the SEC stating that “a substantial number of temporary workers” had been laid off. The company has sought special exemption to keep the document from circulating on the Web.

The document states that Google has 24,400 employees, however on  September 30, 2008 the company reported  to the SEC that it had 20,123 employees when in reality it had 30,000. At that time Google did not report the 10,000 temporary employees to the SEC, because Google wanted the option to lay off employees on demand to meeting earning expectations without reporting to the SEC.

Now the company says 4,300 of the 24,400 employees are temporary. So why report temporary employees now and not then? Why get an exemption to keep the documents private?

Further the company reported 30,000 employees on November 24, 2008 and 24,400 on Dec 15, 2008. Where did 6,000 employees disappear to in 3 weeks?

According to Yahoo Tech: “One message states that IBM will announce 16,000 layoffs on Jan. 23, affecting workers worldwide. Similar predictions are made in other recent posts on the site, which is run by the Alliance@IBM/Communications Workers of America Local 1701, a union that is trying to organize IBM workers.”

“The union, while still in an organizing phase and not yet recognized by IBM, has about 6,000 members, including IBM employees and retirees, according to national coordinator Lee Conrad. But because the union has not reached an employment contract with IBM, there is “not an awful lot” it can do except raise awareness of the issue”.

LayoffBlog.com: Stay tuned for more info.

An unofficial online employee Web site, IBMemployee.com, says massive layoffs are coming to Big Blue later this month, according to Times Herald-Record.

“All divisions in IBM will be affected,” says one entry, adding the majority of those cuts will be announced Jan. 23.

“Several more posts say approximately 16,000 employees, mostly in the U.S., will be affected.”

• IBM has more than 386,000 employees worldwide, according to its Web site. If the rumored 16,000 figure proves accurate, then, it would equal roughly a 4% reduction in headcount.

IBM’s been cutting people every couple of weeks, but they’re small, silent cuts. What we’re concerned about is a massive one, according to various insider sources.

Update: Union tries to organize IBM workers

Update 1 (Jan 06, 2008): IBM Employees Buzzing About Layoff Rumors

Update 2 (Jan 11, 2009): IBM approves Obama’s IT stimulus package; $30bn will create 900,000 jobs, healthy IBM

Rumor (Jan 19, 2009): Massive layoff packages offered on 1/27

Update 3 (Jan 19, 2009): Stress levels rise at IBM as word of job cuts swirls

Update 4 (Jan 20, 2009):

• Several sources warn of imminent job cuts announcement.
• IBM Profit Tops Forecast; Outlook Better than Expected, according to CNBC: “The guidance of $9.20 is awesome… looks like their outsourcing, packaging, cost containment strategy is working. They executed really well..”

Update 5 (Jan 21, 2009):

• According to rumor, IBM started to cut sales and engineering positions in US.
• The arguably more-important indicator of IBM’s performance — its top line — fell 6.4%, according to WSJ

Update  6 (Jan 22, 2008):

• IBM confirms job layoffs: “28 out of 45 cut,” according to a another entry, from Austin, Texas. “Young and old, top and bottom performers. Never show me great 4Q numbers again.”, according to Betanews
• IBM employees reported yesterday that the layoffs are already happening in IBM software and distribution divisions in the US and Canada, according to multiple news sources

Update 7 (March 11, 2009): Scattered layoffs in IBM can touch 4,600

Update 8 (March 11, 2009): IBM Cutting More Jobs, Shifting Work to India

~ LayOffBlog.com: Please feel free to comment this info and/or send us your updates regarding IBM layoffs. ~

According to BizJournals: “AMD said in a regulatory filing on Monday that it cut about 100 more jobs than it originally targeted, resulting in higher than expected restructuring costs in the fourth quarter.

The Sunnyvale chip maker (NYSE:AMD) said it reduced its work force by 600 and will see $70 million in costs related to that move, instead of the 500-worker cut with $50 million in costs originally announced in November.”

AMD also said it isn’t through, saying in the filing that “further cost reduction actions will result in additional charges in the first half of fiscal 2009, which the company cannot estimate at this time”, according to New Mexico Business Weekly

Update: So the rumor we published earlier regarding possible additional layoffs at AMD is confirmed.