Corporate & legal

When I head to Washington, D.C., this weekend for the 44th president's inauguration, there's one major question burning in my mind: Will my cell phone work?

I am one of the 240,000 people with free tickets attending President-elect Barack Obama's swearing-in ceremony on the steps of the U.S. Capitol next week. And like the other 2 million or so people descending upon Washington, D.C., this weekend for the festivities, I am counting on my cell phone to not only keep me informed of important traffic alerts and happenings around the nation's capital … Read more

Updated at 5:20 p.m. PST, with comments from executive recruiter Jon Holman.

Yahoo is providing its new CEO, Carol Bartz, with a $1 million base salary, as part of a lucrative $19 million compensation package for the former Autodesk executive, according to a filing Thursday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Under the four-year employment contract, Bartz, 60, will also receive an annual equity grant valued at approximately $8 million in February, the filing stated. This grant will be doled out at the same time other Yahoo executives receive their annual equity grants.

And like most … Read more

Autodesk announced on Thursday plans to cut about 10 percent of its workforce--or about 750 employees--as it lowered its fourth-quarter earnings outlook.

The drafting and design software maker now expects to post between $475 million and $500 million in revenue when it reports results on February 26. In its previous forecast in November, the company said it expected to bring in $525 million to $550 million in the quarter.

Autodesk also lowered its non-GAAP earnings outlook to 18 cents to 24 cents, excluding special charges, down from its previous forecast of 28 cents to 34 cents.

The company's shares … Read more

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

Google is growing up and tweaking its business on many fronts: it is closing up shop in some engineering centers, laying off recruiters, ending deals with contractors, and killing projects that aren't delivering. Simply put, Google is acting like a real company.

Although some folks (Techmeme) will view these changes as bad news, it appears that Google is maturing. And that's a good thing. Another good thing: the myth of Google is going away. Who really bought that Google-is-invincible line of thinking? Google as recession-proof? Not quite. Google … Read more

Motorola announced Wednesday that it plans to cut another 4,000 jobs, or about 6 percent of its workforce, and warned that weaker-than-expected handset sales would lead to a fourth-quarter loss.

Motorola said 3,000 jobs would be eliminated from its handset unit, while another 1,000 jobs would be cut from the rest of the company. The cuts announced Wednesday are in addition to 3,000 job cuts Motorola announced in October as part of a broader restructuring that also halted the launch of many upcoming phones.

"The actions we are taking today in our Mobile Devices business … Read more

After nearly a decade at Yahoo, President Sue Decker is bowing out to make way for new Chief Executive Carol Bartz--after helping her new boss through a transition period. Here's the full text of the memo she sent to Yahoo staff--plus a Yahoo photo of her appearance with Bartz during Wednesday's all-hands meeting with the company's new leader.

From: Sue Decker Sent: Tuesday, January 13, 2009 2:32 PM To: all employees Subject: The next chapter

Yahoos

After almost nine incredibly rewarding years with this terrific company, I have decided that it is time for me … Read more

In past downturns, Microsoft has been able to trim around the edges and avoid large, widespread layoffs. But, as Steve Ballmer made clear in an interview with me last week, this is no ordinary downturn.

"The fact of the matter is, this is not a downturn, this is a bit of a reset," he said. "Those are quite different and we're trying to really suss through what we think that means for us."

For some weeks now, the company has been considering whether it would need to cut a significant number of jobs, with some … Read more

Google, having reduced its hiring rate, is also reducing its hiring staff.

The company said on its corporate blog that it's cutting about 100 jobs.

"Given the state of the economy, we recognized that we needed fewer people focused on hiring," said Laszlo Bock, Google's vice president of people operations, in the blog posting. "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 … Read more

To: Carol Bartz From: One member of the punditocracy Subject: Rebuilding Yahoo

Welcome to your new job as Yahoo's CEO.

As you probably guessed by how rapidly Jerry Yang slipped to footnote status in yesterday's stories, we're all glad to see you and eager to move on to the next phase of the news cycle. And judging by the fact that Yahoo's stock rose more than 2 percent to $12.41 today when most everybody else's went down, the shareholders are extending you some goodwill, too.

I know you requested some "breathing room" from us nattering nabobs … Read more