Category Archives: Technology

Business/Economics, International, Technology

Government & Corporate Incompetence: TEPCo says new radiation leak is pouring Strontium into the Pacific Ocean

On December 4, Tokyo Electric says they found a leak in a desalinization unit.  It’s not a small leak, so far 45 tons of contaminated water has poured out.

What’s really interesting is that the de-salting unit is supposed to be treating water that had already had radioactive contaminants removed.  TEPCo is saying the water is contaminated with 130,000 becquerels per cubic centimeter of strontium!

Company officials say it is highly likely that the strontium contaminated water made it into the Pacific Ocean, because there is a drainage ditch nearby leading to the ocean.  It’s most likely strontium 90, which has a half life of 28.8 years, and causes many cancers including bone cancer.

TEPCo also made confusing statements; one said workers had checked the unit just 21 hours prior and found no signs of leaking, but then in another statement TEPCo officials admitted they did not act fast enough (a now typical trait of TEPCo management) as it was known that water was building up inside the unit, but they thought it would not leak out.

TEPCO says it will take them two weeks to improve their leak detection of the water treatment units.

Business/Economics, Idaho, International, Technology, U.S.

Corporate Incompetence: Could demise of Hewlett Packard’s WebOS end hundreds of jobs in Idaho? HP in bed with Microsoft? We’ll find out in two weeks

“We should announce our decision in the next two weeks. This is not an easy decision, because we have a team of 600 people which is in limbo.”-Meg Whitman, CEO Hewlett Packard

French media interviewed Hewlett Packard’s latest CEO, Meg Whitman.  She says what they decide to do with their WebOS system will affect at least 600 HP employees.

Other media reports confirmed that 525 layoffs, made back in September, were the result of ending WebOS hardware production.  Since August the system has been up for sale, no takers so far.

It’s strange because as recently as July, Stephen DeWitt, head of the WebOS business unit, claimed that WebOS was so versatile that it could be used in a “universe of devices”.

What happened? Executives at HP have decided to use Microsoft’s Windows 8 operating system. In explaining the embracing of Windows 8 Whitman also explained why they canceled their number two selling tablet, the TouchPad: “Internet tablets are mainly used to consume media and e-mails. If you want to use productivity software such as Microsoft, you can not…This is an important area in which we want to go.”  “We stopped using the products that use the operating system WebOS. We will return in 2012. We will have an internet tablet that will use Microsoft Windows 8.”

The new HP tablet that runs on Window 8 is called Slate 2.

Whitman also talked about the high turnover of HP CEOs, and her plans with the company: “HP has had three CEOs in less than two years.  I’m here to stay. Even if my friend Mitt Romney becomes the next president of the United States, I will not join him in Washington.”  “We must invest more in storage, networks and servers to align ourselves with our competitors like EMC and Cisco. Our last server, which uses an ARM processor is more efficient in terms of energy consumption. We need these major innovations to differentiate ourselves.”

In November unnamed sources at HP’s, Boise, Idaho operations leaked word of more layoffs.  Between 3,000 and 4,000 people work at HP’s Boise facilities.  Could the demise of WebOS have anything to do with it?  According to the French newspaper, Le Figaro, Whitman said the world will find out in two weeks.

Business/Economics, Idaho, Technology, U.S.

Corporate Incompetence: Hewlett Packard gets downgraded, Idaho still waiting for official job layoffs announcement

“Major strategic reversals” is one reason why Standard & Poor’s just downgraded Hewlett Packard’s credit rating.

S&P’s also blamed HP’s inconsistent behavior: “We have concerns that HP’s inconsistent growth strategies and high levels of board of director and senior management turnover have elevated the level of operational and execution risk in the near term.”-Martha Toll-Reed, Standard & Poor’s

I’ve written about some of HP’s hypocritical behavior, like laying off hundreds of U.S. employees, buying back millions of dollars worth of their own stocks, then investing billions into their Taiwan operations, and hiring hundreds of employees in Taiwan.

Another dumb move was cancelling production of their TouchPad tablet. Turns out it was the number two selling tablet in the U.S.!

It’s been revealed that HP just spent U.S.$11.7 billion to buy a British software company called Autonomy.  $6 billion of that was in cash!!! Couldn’t HP have used that money to keep U.S. workers employed, or improve their products (they really need to)?

Back at the beginning of November someone at their Boise, Idaho, operation leaked that more layoffs were coming.  Officially HP is working on a press release to explain it. It’s the start of December now, and still no press release.

S&P’s has downgraded HP’s credit rating to BBB+.

Business/Economics, International, Technology

Global Economic War: Russians have the money. Mazda, Renault, Nissan, VW, GM and Fiat make their move

“Russia is Mazda’s second largest market in Europe and sales are rapidly increasing. Mazda sold approximately 28,000 units during the period from January through September 2011, a year on year increase of approximately 77%!”-Mazda Motors statement

Mazda announced they’ve made an U.S.$80 million joint venture deal with Russian car maker Sollers.  By next autumn they will begin production of Mazda cars in the far eastern city of Vladivostok.

Mazda is not the only foreign car maker to make moves on the Russian car market: Renault-Nissan, General Motors, Izuzu, SsangYong, Fiat and Volkswagen have all started production in Russian factories.

 

Business/Economics, International, Technology, U.S.

Corporate Hypocrisy: FMC spends money to take over companies that clean up pollution, yet refuses to clean up Idaho Super Fund site? FMC issues millions in debt notes, to join the growing trend of stock buybacks by Corporate America.

From 1949 to 2001, U.S. based FMC operated a phosphorus processing plant in southeastern Idaho, just west of Pocatello and Chubbuck.  Ten years later that plant is now an EPA Superfund site, and locals are still waiting for FMC to clean it up!

The hypocrisy is that FMC has been going around spending money buying up companies that specialize in environmental clean up!  The most recent purchase was Canada’s Adventus Intellectual Property: “Adventus presents an exceptional opportunity for FMC to broaden its growing portfolio of advanced specialty solutions serving the global site remediation market.”-Mark Douglas, FMC Industrial Chemicals

FMC site, west of Pocatello and Chubbuck, south of Fort Hall Reservation

So if FMC can buy up companies that specialize in environmental clean up, why can’t FMC clean up it’s old phosphorus plant in southeastern Idaho?

FMC claims to have annual sales of approximately $3.1 billion!  Yet FMC has just completed the sale of U.S.$300 million worth of debt notes.  Why does it need to do that?  According to FMC officials they’re jumping on the new trend of Corporate America buying back their stocks.  FMC wants to buy back at least $200 million of their own shares!  Instead, shouldn’t they spend that on cleaning up their Idaho Superfund site?

Recently the Environmental Protection Agency held public meetings in southeastern Idaho, to discuss ways to clean up the old FMC site.  Capped ponds at the site are emitting toxic phosphine gas.  There was also decades of dumping before the EPA was created. There is concern that contamination is leaking into the ground water, and nearby rivers.

 

Business/Economics, International, Technology, U.S.

Corporate Incompetence & What Economic Recovery? Another U.S. computer company, Dell, spends big, and loses big, in Taiwan. Want to work for Dell? Move to Taiwan

Taiwan’s Ministry of Economic Affairs named U.S. based Dell their third biggest foreign buyer, after Hewlett Packard and Toshiba.

This comes after Dell was ordered (some says ‘suggested’) by the Taiwan government to honor a pricing mistake on 19 inch monitors and pricey laptop computers.  The monitors were mistakenly priced at U.S.$15.00 and the laptops at $563.40.

Dell tried to get customers to pay full price, but was threatened with a $759,000 fine by the Taiwan government.

“To avoid further confusion to our customers and to facilitate further investigation Dell has made the difficult decision to close our Taiwan online store.”-Dell statement

Dell is still trying to get the Taiwan government to let them recoup their loses, and avoid something like this in the future, after all Dell spends about $10 billion on Taiwanese made products every year!

Buy the way, if you want to work for Dell, be willing to move to Taiwan.  As of November 27, Dell has at least 40 openings in Taiwan: “Thank you for considering a career in Taiwan at Dell”

Business/Economics, Technology, U.S.

Corporate Incompetence: Hewlett Packard cancels TouchPad, turns out it’s the number two selling tablet in the U.S.!

“76% of consumers who purchased a non-Apple tablet didn’t even consider the iPad, an indication that a large group of consumers are looking for alternatives, and an opportunity for the rest of the market to grow their business.”-Stephen Baker, NPD Group

On August 18, HP announced it was stopping production of its TouchPad tablet, citing poor sales.   Yet a survey by NPD Group says the HP TouchPad was the number two selling tablet in the United States, in 2011!

HP’s decision to cancel their TouchPad came just seven weeks after it was released.  That’s not long enough to give a new product a chance.  However, part of the reason for the HP TouchPad grabbing the number two spot, is that the price was dropped from $499 to an incredible $99!

This just seems like Corporate Incompetence to me.

 

 

Business/Economics, International, Technology, U.S.

Global Economic War: Start calling it Amazon China

“The Chinese e-commerce market will have a lot of winners, and Amazon China will be one of them.”-Wang Hanhua, president of Amazon China

In 2004 U.S. based Amazon entered the Chinese market, by taking over Joyo.com, a Chinese online book store.  They now have a new name: Amazon China.

The new name is a result of explosive growth thanks to the domestic Chinese economy.  Amazon China just opened the largest operations center outside of the United States, in Kunshan, Jiangsu province.  According to Chinese media it covers 120,000 square meters (1,291,669 square feet)!

“We are fully aware of the potential of this business, but we need to be prepared in logistics, packing center and operation systems.”-Wang Hanhua, president of Amazon China

Amazon China accounts for one third of all of Amazon’s global sales!

Wang Hanhua says one of the secrets to Amazon’s success in China is continued investment into marketing innovations: “Amazon China’s strategy is to invest continuously and focus on the long term market; that’s the reason why Amazon didn’t question its investment into China when it didn’t produce high returns.”

Now why can’t more Corporate America companies do that here in the United States?

Business/Economics, Idaho, International, Technology, U.S.

Global Economic War: Chinese owned Hoku about to start operations in Idaho. Will U.S. investigation into Chinese solar products put the brakes on Hoku’s operations?

“We believe the Department of Commence investigation will show that Chinese government and Chinese solar manufacturers are, and have been, engaged in illegal practices that threaten to decimate a vitally needed renewable energy industry.”-Gordon Brinser, SolarWorld Industries

After many problems affecting construction and causing long delays, on November 21, Hoku’s CEO, Scott Paul, announced they cleared a milestone in getting their Pocatello, Idaho, polysilicon factory up and running; connection to permanent electrical power supplied by Idaho Power.

Hoku also announced they will now be selling finished photovoltaic modules through a subsidiary called Tianwei Solar USA.  The finished products are made in China, by a company called Tianwei New Energy.  While Tianwei Solar USA is a subsidiary of Hoku Corporation, Hoku is actually a subsidiary of Tianwei New Energy, in China.

Now comes the U.S. Department of Commerce and the International Trade Commission.  They are investigating claims by seven U.S. based photovoltaic manufacturers, that Chinese based companies (like Tianwei, which controls Hoku) are breaking trade laws.

The International Trade Commission will render a decision around December 5.

Now comes China’s Ministry of Commerce.  In retaliation for the U.S. investigation into Chinese companies dumping their finished photovoltaic products on the U.S. market, the China Photovoltaic Industry Alliance claims the U.S. is dumping polysilicon at below cost prices in China!

So, Hoku’s polysilicon production for Chinese customers, mainly their majority owner Tianwei, is being threatened by an investigation by the Chinese government, AND, Hoku’s selling of Tianwei’s photovoltaic products is being threatened by an investigation by the U.S. government!

Hoku is trapped between a rock and a hard place.

WHAT ECONOMIC RECOVERY? HOKU, IDAHO, FINALLY TO START POLYSILICON PRODUCTION?

Business/Economics, Idaho, Technology, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? Former HP employee, and MBA holder, finds new job by NOT talking about his college education

“Nobody ever thinks, ‘Hey, I’m having trouble getting a job now.  Let me go get this extra degree and I’m sure I’ll still have trouble.’”-Nathan Bussey

In 2008, Idahoan Nathan Bussey lost his coveted job with Hewlett-Packard.  He used the unexpected time off to get an MBA.

Forget the rhetoric coming out of Corporate America, that they can’t find “qualified” applicants, Bussey discovered that having a college degree actually hurt his chances of getting a job.   That’s because the only jobs available don’t really require college.

This year Bussey took a job with a dreaded call center.  He did not tell them about his MBA, because it would’ve hurt his chances for getting hired.  He’s getting paid much less than when he was working for HP, but he and his wife are desperate: “We have no savings anymore. If something happened, if one of us got hurt or sick, we certainly would be in a much worse situation now.  We’ve used our buffer.  That rainy day fund is now gone.”