Incomplete list of U.S. internet/high-tech/communications job destruction and chicanery announcements in August 2018:
WARN=Worker Adjustment & Retraining Notification
Germany based tech giant Siemens reportedly planning to kill 20-thousand administrative jobs globally, as part of its Vision 2020 plan!
CALIFORNIA: New York based Deluxe Entertainment Services laying off 46 people in Burbank, including software engineers, by mid-October as a result of “proactively shifting to focus on new technologies”. Iconic Berkeley recording studio Fantasy Studios shutting down in September, the property owner is selling the building. Sacramento based newspaper owner The McClatchy Company announced it will kill 140 jobs at all its U.S. newspapers (Miami Herald, Sacramento Bee, Lexington Herald-Leader, The Charlotte Observer, The Herald-Sun, The Wichita Eagle, and The Kansas City Star), due to crashing advertising revenues! AwesomenessTV eliminating 98 jobs between October and December, due to being taken over by Viacom. Symantec has been conducting round after round of small layoffs in California, like 20 California jobs suddenly eliminated this month, and now the Mountain View based software company wants to kill 1-thousand jobs globally, blaming it on lack of revenues into the foreseeable future (what economic recovery?), and “stranded costs” of operations! “Quote-to-cash” software company Apttus issued a layoff WARN, 65 jobs gone by October. AT&T issued a layoff WARN for its San Ramon ops, 59 jobs gone by mid-October. Electronic payroll company Global Cash Card issued a mass layoff WARN for its Irvine location, 228 jobs gone by mid-October! Mayfield Robotics issued a shutdown WARN for its ops in Redwood City, 63 jobs gone by mid-October. San Jose based semiconductor maker Cavium issued a layoff WARN, 41 jobs gone in September. Massachusetts based Novanta issued a layoff WARN for its San Jose ops, 42 jobs gone before Xmas. Bankrupt busted movie maker Global Road Entertainment suddenly began laying off people in Los Angeles and in United Kingdom, due to the Too Big to Jail banks taking control of operations.
Timeline: Elon Musk’s ‘difficult and painful’ 2018
Elon Musk’s Summertime Madness
Tesla and Elon Musk had a wild August
McClatchy makes more layoffs
GlobalFoundries announces more layoffs, stops 7 nanometer project
COLORADO: New Jersey based Conduent shutting down its Colorado Springs call center, 410 jobs gone due to ‘restructuring’! Digital graphics company Circle Graphics suddenly laid off an undisclosed number of people.
CONNECTICUT: Netsolace eliminating 20 Wallingford jobs by Xmas.
IDAHO: Software problem closes driver’s license offices, hinders police
Pocatello’s community access channel will shut down
INDIANA: Charter Communications shutdown its customer service ops on Roosevelt Road in Indianapolis, with only a three weeks notice, 84 jobs gone. So much for going digital, without warning News Sentinel laid off all but one of its remaining employees and halted digital operations, despite ‘good’ online numbers the advertising revenue wasn’t enough!
IOWA: Humach eliminating ten jobs in Oelwein, by September.
KANSAS: The Wichita Eagle executed another small round of layoffs, as part of parent company McClatchy’s cost cutting. It seems The Wichita Eagle has been conducting small layoffs ever since 2009.
MARYLAND: Discovery Communications eliminating 212 Silver Spring jobs in October, as part of plans to move corporate ops to New York!
MASSACHUSETTS: Online bike-share company Zagster continues to kill jobs, for the second time this year an undisclosed number of people were laid off and lack of income is being blamed, saying it needs “legitimate sponsorship and recurring revenue opportunities.” F5 Networks eliminating 89 jobs in Lowell by the end of September, despite claiming to be hiring for hundreds of jobs administrators admitted that so far “We have eliminated approximately 230 positions”.
MICHIGAN: Utah based, but France owned, Teleperformance USA shutting down its Cascade call center, 91 jobs gone. In Walker, Charter Communications laid off 51 people. In Livonia, Charter Communications laid off 60 people.
MINNESOTA: Hutchinson Technology suddenly laid off 60 people.
NEBRASKA: Warren Buffett owned Omaha World Herald suddenly eliminated 23 jobs, blaming it on lack of advertisers.
NEW HAMPSHIRE: High dollar, hi-tech gadgetry seller Brookstone now chapter 11 bankrupt busted and shutting down 1-hundred U.S. brick-n-mortar stores to focus on airport, e-commerce and wholesale ops.
NEW JERSEY: Hi-tech store Best Buy shutting down its location in Howell, 30 jobs gone right before the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday due to not being able to renew the lease.
NEW YORK: Iconic Kodak (once a tech giant) eliminating 325 jobs across the U.S., no they’re not film/photography jobs, they’re ‘flexographic’ packaging jobs! Hi-tech store Best Buy shutting down its Great Northern Mall location, in Clay, right before the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday claiming it can’t renew the lease. Best Buy also issued a shutdown WARN for its Liverpool store, 76 jobs gone by November. Warner Media-Time Warner issued a layoff WARN for its NYC location, 107 jobs gone by Xmas! Investopedia issued a layoff WARN for its NYC location, 36 jobs gone by March 2019. Taxpayer funded General Dynamics eliminating 31 CSRA InfoTech(IT)-national security jobs in Fort Drum, by the end of October, officially due to loss of contract. Global Foundries suddenly laid off 250 people, blaming it on a sudden crash in demand for computer chips!
Web site Upworthy suddenly laid off 31 people
NORTH CAROLINA: The News & Observer and The Herald-Sun (both owned by the same California based company) eliminating an undisclosed number of jobs due to “unprecedented declines in print advertising and the newsprint tariffs”.
PENNSYLVANIA: United States Traffic Network issued a shutdown WARN for its ops in Malvern, 118 jobs gone by mid-October!
SOUTH CAROLINA: TV maker Element Electronics shutting down its factory in Fairfield County, 126 jobs gone due to the new tariff war with China! Fairfield County has lost hundreds of jobs in the past two years, state senator Mike Fanning said “When you think you’ve reached rock bottom, to get kicked in the gut like this, you didn’t think anything more could happen. Within 365 days, you just get rocked to your core.”
SOUTH DAKOTA: Online lender Ditech Financial shutting down its Rapid City call center, 450 jobs gone by Thanksgiving 2019 (when the lease ends)!
TENNESSEE: Scripps Networks Interactive continues to kill jobs, another round of layoffs (no numbers given) as a result of being taken over by Discovery Communications.
TEXAS: The second largest software company in Austin, British empire Australia based Atlassian, eliminating 101 jobs due to selling off two ‘products’ to a competitor! By the way, the sale of those two products (and resulting layoffs) helped the co-founders of Atlassian make the official Young Rich List in The Land Down Under.
VIRGINIA: Taxpayer funded General Dynamics eliminating 101 CSRA InfoTech(IT)-national security jobs in Chesapeake, by the end of September, as a result of taking over taxpayer funded CSRA this year!
WISCONSIN: OneTouchPoint suddenly laid off 30 people in Green Bay, due to ongoing consolidation ops. Best Buy issued a shutdown WARN for its Grafton store, 68 jobs gone by November. Computer security company Com-Tec Security suddenly shutdown its Greenville location, at least 23 jobs gone due to customers failing to pay for services rendered, creditors unwilling to extend debt financing and failed attempts to sell the company. West Revenue Generation Services suddenly laid off 148 people at its Green Bay and Middleton call centers, “Due to the unexpected and unforeseeable cancellation of a contract from a major client”!
Johnson Controls has laid off 4300 employees since 2016
U.S. Tech/Communications breakdown, July 2018: “WE NEED TO GET THE LIFE EXPECTANCY OUT OF THEM.”
More taxpayer funded hi-tech video games for the military as the U.S. Army Tank Automotive Research, Development and Engineering Center (TARDEC) hosted a NATO technology demo at the Keweenaw Research Center (KRC) to showcase mobility prediction software, called Next-Generation NATO Reference Mobility Model (NG-NRMM) Development. It’s for predicting problems with logistical ground transportation of military supplies: “We’ve digitized every pebble in the proving ground here into a database and they can have that database. So, they can drive that vehicle through the terrain in the computer and try to predict the mobility, as we call it, of that vehicle going through that rough terrain.”-Jay Meldrum, KRC
“This new software is amazing! The speed is mind-blowing! The parking heading colors are cool. The auto-execute feature is a game changer.”-First Sergeant Alex Joy, 3rd Battalion, 27th Field Artillery Regiment (3-27 FAR) Fort Bragg, about the new M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) Software System Suite Version 8.0
