Incomplete list of U.S. internet/high-tech job destruction announcements from July to September 2015
“For all you people who got RAed [laid off]. I pray for you. For all you people who found out you have not been RAed (yet) and have not joined the Alliance, and still will not join, I pity you…when are you gonna fight for your job and paycheck??? Doing nothing doesn’t do anything.”-anonymous IBM (International Business Machine) employee
After raising $5.5-million USD, and in a span of 24 hours “the secret weapon of successful people” Zirtual shutdown and told 4-hundred employees they were not needed, then Startups.com announced “We’ve acquired Zirtual and we’re excited to bring it to new levels. With that being said, we’d like to invite you back.” Some news reports said work for Zirtual suddenly slowed down with no explanation.
Recently merged France owned Razorfish-Rosetta laid off an undisclosed number of U.S. employees, mainly in New York City and Atlanta, Georgia.
Japan based Nintendo ending its three years old TVii service in North America in August. Administrators say they must focus resources (code for money) “on other projects.”
Alabama: Audio-visual company MindGear Labs ending their ops in Madison, saying they are focusing on their educational services. They are also reducing their membership rates in September, however new memberships won’t be accepted until next year. Administrators added that “Our online products will go on hiatus until the latter part of 2015. However, we will continue to work small and large projects for individuals and companies.”
California: In Camarillo, Semtech laying off 8% of employees. Back in 2014 they eliminated 6% of their jobs. It’s blamed on crashing sales: “Given our recent revenue decline driven primarily by weak Korean smartphone demand, we have made the very difficult decision to reduce our headcount and operating expenses across a majority of Semtech’s locations.”-Mohan Maheswaran, CEO
San Jose based electronic payment service Paypal has shutdown all Paypal users in Greece! This means that people in Greece are not able to access their money in Paypal accounts. This also directly affects people trying to sell items on ebay! Apparently this is because the Greek government has frozen all bank transfers to Paypal, and other e-payment services. Speaking of Paypal, they just spent $890-million USD to buy rival Xoom. Monterey based CTB/McGraw-Hill laid off at least 33 Ryan Ranch HQ employees, due to selling off ‘key assets’ to Minnesota’s Data Recognition Corporation. Aliso Viejo based data storage company QLogic warned 2-hundred employees of mass layoffs, due to unexpected crashing sales. Santa Rosa based Keysight Technologies eliminating at least 1-hundred jobs in an attempt to cut costs by $25-million USD! Administrators claim that by killing jobs now it will somehow result in new jobs later. Santa Ana based Ingram Micro lost $34.3-million USD in its 2nd quarter, prompting administrators to warn of $100-million worth of mass layoffs! Burbank based visual effects company Stereo D laid off about 225 people! Work is being shifted to Canada. Los Gatos based Netflix announced it will shutdown its last brick-n-mortar data center. Netflix will now put customers’ data on the publicly accessed ‘cloud’. No mention of how many humans (jobs) will be lost. Redwood City based Evernote said it will eliminate 13% of its jobs (about 47) and shutdown three offices, saying the economy is forcing them to downsize. Western Digital issued a mass layoff WARNs saying 280 people will become jobless right before Thanksgiving! Cupertino based (but incorporated in Ireland as a tax dodge) Seagate laying off 1-thousand 112 people between T-giving and Xmas! In San Ramon, AT&T issued a mass layoff WARN saying 219 people will lose their jobs! Santa Clara based Marvell Tech announced it will eliminate 17% of its global jobs, and immediately investors drove the price of the company’s stock skyward! Expected mass layoffs by Qualcomm will be nearly 5-thousand! Qualcomm employs about 12-thousand people in San Diego. Also in San Diego, Soitec Solar Industries shutting down in October, 1-hundred jobs lost! And United Technologies issued a shutdown WARN for September, 21 San Diego jobs lost. Again in San Diego, Washington based Microsoft laying off 129 people by September! Cisco Systems revealed they laid off 192 people in San Diego, and halted its Invicta Appliance and its Scaling Systems development, and eliminated 50% of positions at their United Kingdom cell phone ops known as Ubiquisys! Japan based GREE International finally revealed they laid off 114 people in San Francisco, back in July! San Francisco based video game maker Kixeye laid off an undisclosed number of employees. In Berkeley, reports say biotech company XOMA eliminating 58 jobs in order to “lower operating expenses and preserve capital”. In San Jose, Maxim Integrated eliminated 161 jobs in September! Email marketer Lyris Technologies laying off 79 people by the end of September. In Sunnyvale, Illinois based Motorola laying off 213 people by the end of October! (Does it have anything to do with the merger with China’s Lenovo?) Tax-sucker Raytheon Intelligence issued a shutdown WARN for their Chula Vista ops, 41 jobs lost in October. Mountain View based tech company Intuit eliminating more jobs, this time 249 laid off! Mountain View based Symantec continues to eliminate jobs, this time 60 people will become jobless by the beginning of August. Palo Alto based Hewlett Packard (HP) announced that 30-thousand people will become jobless in November! That’s when the new HP Enterprise company will be spunoff: “Hewlett Packard Enterprise will be smaller and more focused than HP is today. As a separate company, we are better positioned than ever to meet the evolving needs of our customers around the world.”-Meg Whitman (HP has already eliminated 50-thousand+ jobs!)
Colorado: Switzerland owned solar power parts supplier Diamond Materials Tech laid off 46 people in Colorado Springs in order to “further optimizing the cost structure and production capacity.” They laid off 43 people in January, and 105 people in October 2014! California software company Intuit shutdown their Denver call center, 59 jobs lost. In Denver, anonymous IBM (International Business Machine) employee reported “11 people on my team RA’d today, including our boss. Worked 12 years for IBM and recently received special awards from my VP for customer service. Our India team does not have the training or background required to support our customer’s specialized applications. This will result in GTS loosing more accounts. My spouse thinks that IBM Senior Mgmt is so tight, they will want to be buried with their money!” In Boulder, anonymous IBM (International Business Machine) employee reported “21 years with the company. Good reviews. Same as all the others. Finally got my call this morning for the RA. It’s finally my turn. My main customer requires US workers, but it hasn’t stopped IBM from trying to secretly send the work to India before (until the customer found out). Not sure if they will try again, or if they will just transfer it to another US team. I know that my team is too overloaded to be able to pick it up. Last RA hurt us bad, this one will likely drive my department under. So sad to watch IBM implode like this, as it used to be such a great company to work for. Looking forward to what the future holds for me!” Another Boulder employee said “Got ra’d today after 36 and 1/2 years. I was told it was not because of my performance. I asked them why they are keeping the girl who calls in an average of 60 days a year. All he said was ‘I know’”
Connecticut: Norwalk based Xerox announced 3-thousand more job cuts, due to the never ending crashing-n-burning sales!
Georgia: Anonymous reports say IBM (International Business Machine) contracting out their in-house Recovery Management and Help Desk functions in Sandy Springs, by the end of August.
Idaho: Reports that Boise based micro chip maker Micron is about to be sold-off. The potential buyer is China’s Tsinghua Unigroup, which is offering $23-billion for the troubled company. If Micron agrees the deal must be accepted by the Committee on Foreign Investment. Education Networks of America and Qwest Communications are demanding at least $6-million tax dollars for unpaid work they did on the the failed Idaho Education Network! Boise based Syringa Networks announced it is ending its Syringa Wireless service after Xmas: “….Syringa Wireless has fought hard to maintain low prices and high quality service for our Idaho communities…..Over the last 3 years we have made extensive financial investments [of which $930-thousand is still owed to Syringa by the ‘elected’ officials of Idaho, for the failed Idaho Education Network]…..As a small, locally owned and operated provider, we have arrived at a point where it’s simply not feasible to continue to operate.”
Illinois: Chicago based internet couponing company Groupon announced it will kill 1-thousand 1-hundred jobs over the next year, as it ends operations in six countries! Groupon is also selling-off 45% of its Republic of Korea ops. In Chicago, Motorola laid off 5-hundred people! At one time Obama regime stooge Rahm Emanuel called Motorola Chicago’s “major economic engine”. Rip-off DeVry Education Group announced they will eliminate 95 DeVry Online Services jobs by September. Northfield based insurance giant Allstate laid off an undisclosed number of InfoTech employees, according to unnamed employees. Allstate administrators confirmed by saying “As a result of a recent review, positions have been eliminated in some of Allstate’s technology areas.” Local news reports revealed that while Allstate has been eliminating jobs in the U.S. they’ve been creating jobs elsewhere, like India.
Kentucky: Lexington based printer maker Lexmark will eliminate at least 5-hundred jobs! It’s the result of Lexmark taking over companies like Kofax and ReadSoft.
Louisiana: After promising to hire 8-hundred people in exchange for $20-million USD in state tax breaks, Monroe based cable-phone-internet service provider CenturyLink announced they will eliminate 1-thousand jobs across the U.S., administrators blame crashing profits, partly caused by ObamaCare: “CenturyLink’s results for the second quarter were below our forecast and Street consensus, primarily due to continued pressure on wholesale revenues and higher employee and benefit costs.”
Maryland: British empire United Kingdom owned high tech antenna maker Lorch Microwave eliminated 10% of its Salisbury employees due to crashing sales.
Massachusetts: Intel selling off their shuttered Hudson chip factory. Intel shut it down after 2013, killing 7-hundred jobs!
Michigan: In Ann Arbor, tech company ForeSee conducted a second round of layoffs, refusing to confirm how many people are now jobless. Local news reports say as many as 37 employees were laid off. Back in January as many as 70 people were laid off. It’s blamed on ForeSee being taken over by Answers Corporation.
Minnesota: Imation notified local news media that it had just conducted a “mass layoff” at its World Headquarters in Oakdale, but refused to say how many people lost their jobs. Maker of cabs for heavy vehicles and consoles for computers, Crenlo announced 30 people will be laid off by the end of the month. It’s blamed on crashing sales. In Hutchinson, after seven years video game store GameStop shutdown with little warning.
Missouri: Local news reports say IBM (International Business Machine) has been secretly laying off employees in Columbia. The info comes from unnamed IBM employees. It also turns out that IBM lost a Missouri taxpayer funded deal because IBM failed to meet the employment requirements in that deal. Given the mass layoffs IBM has conducted since January, it’s not a surprise. Software company Answers Corporation eliminated 1-hundred jobs! It was revealed by former employees. It’s the result of Answers’ takeover of Michigan tech company ForeSee.
New Mexico: The administrators of Google aren’t that smart after all, they just have too much money to play with. Google suddenly pulled its Titan Aerospace solar powered drone program from Moriarty Airport, right after state taxpayers shelled out $955-thousand USD to upgrade the airport just for Titan Aerospace! State administrators claim they’ve successfully forced Google to pay back the “economic assistance funds”. Yeah, like Google needs economic assistance?
New York: New York Life Insurance Company laying off eight InfoTech employees after Xmas. E-book operator Oyster killed-off as Google hired away most of the talent. After many financial troubles internet based invention company Quirky now chapter 11 bankrupt busted, after laying off at least 111 people! Reports say Flextronics wants to take over Quirky’s Wink division. In White Plains, AT&T issued a layoff WARN saying 42 people will be laid off right before Thanksgiving. Honeywell Scanning and Mobility issued a layoff WARN for their Skaneateles Falls location, to take place on 31 December 2015. Korea based Samsung issued a WARN saying they’ve terminated their NYC based “PX Project Research and Development Team”, 42 jobs lost. Dozens of ‘Work at Home’ employees of Armonk based IBM (International Business Machine) reporting they’ve been given notice that they are now unemployed, saying they’ve been RAed (Resource Action, IBM’s term for layoffs). One RAed employee says IBM is secretly outsourcing jobs to India, despite contracts that require those jobs to remain in the United States! However, IBM employees in Australia say IBM is outsourcing their jobs as well: “Blood bath happening in Australia at the moment. L1 manger got hit. The L2 had a conference call to let us all know, when questioned as to the rationale behind the RA he replied ‘have you seen the share price today??!’ At least he told the truth for a change.”-anonymous employee called Over It In Oz
North Carolina: IBM announced they will eliminate jobs at the Research Triangle Park, as part of their ongoing “workforce rebalancing”. It’s blamed on non-stop crashing sales. However, cfo Martin Schroeter admitted IBM spent $700-million USD taking over at least five small companies in 2015.
Tennessee: Electronic company TS3 Technology suddenly shutdown, 81 jobs lost.
Texas: Singapore based Flextronics laying off 168 people at its Fort Worth factory by the end of 2015! In 2014 they laid off 223 people at their newly opened Motorola factory, also in Fort Worth!
Utah: California based Fairchild Semiconductor shutdown and eliminated 361 jobs in Salt Lake City! It’s part of the company’s 2014 plan to eliminate 1,350 jobs! Back in August 2014 Fairchild Semiconductor claimed it had 5-hundred employees in Salt Lake City, but their WARN to state administrators says they were down to 361 by April 2015.
Washington: Seattle based Amazon laid off “dozens of engineers” at its California located Lab126, blaming it on their failed Fire Phone. China (Taiwan) based tech company HTC killing more jobs in the U.S., this time 132 people were laid off in The Evergreen State! After losing another $3.2-billion USD, Redmond based Microsoft announced it will eliminate an additional 7-thousand to 9-thousand jobs worldwide! Microsoft even sold-off its bing mapping service to Uber, as well as bing-ads to AOL (which caused 1-thousand 2-hundred people to lose their jobs)! From July 2014 to June 2015 Microsoft eliminated at least 18-thousand jobs! The 3-thousand employees of shopping network Zulily are demanding to know what’s going on as their boss announced the surprise sale of Seattle based Zulily to Pennsylvania based QVC (who is itself in financial trouble). The CEO of five years old Zulily bold faced lied and said “This acquisition is not about cost savings”. My decades of experience with unAmerican corporate America is that such sales or mergers are precisely about “cost savings” (job cuts), and that managers are not above bold face lying about job security to the faces of their employees!
“all companies need to create real business.”: 4th Q 2015
WARN=Worker Adjustment & Retraining Notification
Former employees who receive severance are not counted as unemployed