economy

When employees at Sony's operation in France didn't get severance packages they considered fair, they took matters into their own hands.

On Friday, union workers freed Serge Foucher, CEO of Sony France, and Roland Bentz, head of human resources, from the company's factory in southwest France where they had been held since Thursday afternoon, according to a report by the Associated Press. Employees were angry over the terms of their severance, and kept the two from leaving as a way of protest.

The union representing the employees freed the two executives on the condition that Sony management … Read more

The global economic crisis is taking its toll on the cell phone business, with sales even in the hot smartphone category also expected to slow in 2009.

Two major market research firms published figures for the fourth quarter of 2008 this week. And they each have bleak news for the cell phone industry.

IDC said it expects the volume of all mobile handsets to decline by 8.3 percent in 2009. And it expects sales of hot smartphones, like Apple's iPhone and Research In Motion's BlackBerry phones, to slow to about 3.4 percent growth. Smartphones have been … Read more

An assembly plant in North Carolina will be next on Dell's streak of cost-cutting moves resulting in layoffs.

Dell is laying off workers, but the company will not give the total number and location of all employees affected. Dell did confirm that some of those affected are from the Winston-Salem, N.C., plant.

These layoffs are just the latest in a string of job cuts at the PC maker over the last year. The company laid out a goal in 2008 to cut its costs by $3 billion, which has resulted in plant closings and manufacturing being outsourced to … Read more

Tom Dart, sheriff of Cook County, Ill., says Craigslist is the largest source of prostitution in the country and is suing the site to stop placement of advertisements for such services. But the other side of the story is that the site has also been a goldmine for law enforcement to make arrests for those perpetrating such crimes. CNET News reporters Greg Sandoval and Declan McCullagh talk about how the site helps sex workers weed out violent customers and aids police in catching those who prostitute children.

Also on today's podcast: Boxee sneaks Hulu back onto its service, an … Read more

So much for finding safe refuge from the storm. Even a conference targeted at the quasi-esoteric world of software as a service is finding it tough to fill up the seats these days.

The SaaS Summit 2009 conference, slated to get underway next week in San Francisco, has chopped the price of its "full conference pass" to $495 from $1,195.

In a note, conference sponsor OpSource said it had reduced the cost because it "believes so strongly in the value and industry energy that will be created by bringing together the SaaS, Web, and cloud communities … Read more

As bad as the second half of 2008 treated the PC industry, 2009 is shaping up to be even worse.

PC shipments worldwide will drop 8 percent in the first half of this year, according to a forecast update Thursday to IDC's Worldwide Quarterly PC Tracker. The fourth quarter saw a 1.9 percent decline, driven in large part by large enterprise companies delaying buying replacement PCs during the recession.

But after a rocky start, the industry should turn around a bit by year's end. IDC predicts that shipments will improve over the second half of the year, … Read more

Google CEO Eric Schmidt expects 2009 to be a "tough, tough" year and he warned that the search giant is "not immune" from the worsening economy.

The search giant's chief touched on a wide variety of topics and, specifically, how they affect Google, during an on-stage chat with tech analyst Mary Meeker during the Morgan Stanley Technology Conference held Tuesday in San Francisco. But he focused mostly on the economy, calling the current climate "pretty dire" and adding that he doesn't expect it to improve until next year.

"It obviously will … Read more

LAS VEGAS--With the exception of the camera section, the hall where Sony held its annual product showcase here was practically deserted Monday evening.

In past years, the Sony line show, held two months after CES in the same town, has usually brimmed with tech journalists and gadget reviewers who've gathered to see Sony's real coming-out for the year. (Sony typically holds back at CES in order to show the majority of its new stuff for the year at its own event.)

This year was different. There are likely two factors involved here. Sony had the grandest stage of … Read more

SAN MATEO, Calif.--The advertisement for the job fair boasted a list of desirable employers, including Kaiser Permanente, Southwest Airlines, and Wells Fargo Bank.

But when hopeful Silicon Valley job-seekers arrived at the San Mateo Expo Center here Wednesday, they found booths for the U.S. Army, U.S. Navy, and the Army National Guard. The only non-government, non-education, non-security company to appear was Verizon, which was looking for sales representatives to work in local retail stores--previous retail sales experience required.

It turns out that the ad included fine print. It said the companies listed were "previous participating employers.&… Read more