Corporate & legal

Ballmer: 'The world borrowed too much money'

PALO ALTO, Calif.--Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer began his talk at Stanford University by offering a quick course in economics.

Explaining the economic crisis that has slowed business worldwide and caused Microsoft to have its first companywide layoffs, Ballmer told the crowd at the school's packed Memorial Auditorium, "The world borrowed too much money."

Then he went back to his obligatory chat about the early days at Microsoft, including when he dropped out of Stanford's business school to join the software maker. He noted that he knew how to read a balance sheet, but not much … Read more

Microsoft layoffs hit several products

In the wake of additional layoffs on Tuesday, Microsoft is scaling back--but not totally eliminating--several products. After cutting 1,400 jobs in January, Microsoft said on Tuesday that it is cutting more than 3,000 more jobs.

Among those products affected are Microsoft's ResponsePoint phone system, its .Net Micro Framework, and its MSN Direct Service.

Microsoft said it will continue to sell and support the initial version of ResponsePoint, which is aimed at small businesses.

"We will also continue to promote the product online and spotlight compatible 3rd party services and add-on products," Microsoft said in a … Read more

Former heavyweight Borland bought by Micro Focus

A correction has been made to this story. See below for details.

Long removed from its glory days, Borland Software has relinquished its independence.

The Austin, Texas-based software maker said Wednesday that it has agreed to be acquired in its entirety by Micro Focus International in a $75 million cash transaction, unanimously approved by the boards of both companies.

Borland has struggled in recent years, grappling with weak revenue growth, workforce reductions, and the lack of a consistent direction. Its results for 2008 showed lower revenue and a higher operating loss compared to results from the previous year. It recently … Read more

Could the Kindle DX save Sprint Nextel?

If Amazon's new bigger-screen e-reader, the Kindle DX, lives up to the hype, it could be good news for Sprint Nextel.

Amazon's CEO Jeff Bezos on Monday unveiled the much-anticipated large-screen Kindle e-reader in New York City. The new Kindle DX is geared toward readers of personal and professional documents, newspapers, magazines--and textbooks, a potentially huge target market.

Analysts are expecting this new Kindle to be a big hit. The larger screen and PDF reader will help open up the device to a whole new market.

While huge sales of the new device will obviously benefit Amazon, it'… Read more

Garmin sees drop in first-quarter earnings

Slower consumer spending and lower demand from retailers led to Garmin's "most challenging quarter" since going public in 2000, the GPS device maker's CEO said Wednesday.

Total revenue for Garmin's first quarter, which ended March 29, dropped to $437 million, down 34 percent from $664 million in the first quarter of 2008.

Earnings per share sunk to 24 cents from 67 cents in the year-ago quarter, marking a 24 percent drop. That compares with expectations of analysts polled by Thomson Reuters of 42 cents per share on revenue of $531.6 million. Excluding the impact from foreign-exchange rates, earnings per share decreased 64 percent year over year, to 25 cents from 69 cents.

Garmin's geographical units each saw weaker results. North American revenue fell to $265 million, compared with $411 million in the same quarter of 2008, down 36 percent. Sales in Europe dropped to $144 million from $211 million, down 32 percent. Revenue in Asia was $28 million, compared with $42 million, down 33 percent.… Read more

Craigslist becomes political pinata

This was originally posted at ZDNet's Between the Lines.

If you're a pol who wants to garner some headlines there's one easy route to news coverage: kick Craigslist.

Now it's South Carolina Attorney General Henry McMaster's turn (Techmeme, statement, letter to Craigslist). McMaster has informed Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster (see his reply) that he has to remove "the portions of the Internet site dedicated to South Carolina and its municipal regions which contain categories for and functions allowing for the solicitation of prostitution" in 10 days. If not, "criminal investigation and prosecution&… Read more

Prepaid wireless service could spur price war

The prepaid cell phone market has finally hit the U.S. in a big way as economically strapped consumers flock to inexpensive pay-as-you-go services. The result will likely mean that big cell phone providers may be forced to slash prices on contract service plans to keep consumers from defecting.

This is good news for consumers, who could see lower prices on both prepaid and post-paid service plans. But it is very bad news for cell phone operators, which make more money from their post-paid customers than they do from prepaid customers.

Prepaid cell phone plans, which have been very popular … Read more

Ballmer on Microsoft's new layoffs notices

In the wake of handing out 3,000 layoff notices Tuesday, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer sent an e-mail to staff.

Ballmer characterized the cuts as the second phase of the plan announced in January. At the time, Microsoft said it would cut 5,000 jobs over an 18-month-period. With the cuts made in January and those announced on Tuesday, Microsoft has now nearly eliminated all those positions.

Here is the text of Ballmer's e-mail, which was seen by CNET News.

From: Steve Ballmer Sent: Tuesday, May 05, 2009 To: Microsoft - All Employees Subject: Update: Realigning Resources and Reducing … Read more

Microsoft sends second wave of layoff notices to 3,000

Microsoft on Tuesday notified more than 3,000 workers that it was eliminating their jobs.

The software maker said in January that it would cut up to 5,000 jobs over the next 18 months. It made 1,400 cuts at the time. With the second wave of notifications on Tuesday, Microsoft has cut nearly all 5,000 jobs already.

Although it didn't announce further layoffs, the fact that the company has already made nearly all the reductions under the January plan means further job actions will have to come under a new round of cuts. In a memo to Microsoft workers, … Read more