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News

• Nokia lays off 3,500 employees

  Nokia is planning to lay off an additional 3,500 employees, as the company continues to restructure after announcing its decision to focus on Microsoft's Windows Phone operating system.

• Five outsiders who could lead Hewlett-Packard

  Having gone through a <a href="http://www8.hp.com/us/en/company-information/executive-team/formerceos.html">rash of CEOs</a> in the past 10 to 15 years, Hewlett-Packard may soon find itself looking for yet another new chief, despite just tapping Meg Whitman for that job this week.

• HP board ousts Apotheker, Whitman in as CEO

  Hewlett-Packard CEO Leo Apotheker has been ousted from his position and replaced by HP director and former eBay CEO Meg Whitman, less than a year after he took the job.

• WSJ: Apotheker ouster from HP CEO job imminent

  Hewlett-Packard CEO Leo Apotheker will likely be removed from his position on Thursday and replaced by HP director and former eBay CEO Meg Whitman, according to a Wall Street Journal report.

• HP confirms layoffs at Palm unit

  HP has started laying off workers associated with last year's billion-dollar acquisition of Palm, as it closes down the mobile device business it planned to base on Palm's webOS. The news comes almost exactly a month after HP announced a sweeping reorganization and refocusing of its business.

• Groupon's struggle in China no surprise, say analysts

  Groupon's problems in China, including a recent round of staff layoffs, have come as no surprise to analysts, who hold that the company rushed its plans in the country and relied too much on foreign expertise.

• Cisco profit fell one-third in Q4

  Cisco's profit in its fiscal fourth quarter fell about one-third from a year earlier, while its sales increased only 3.3 percent, the company reported on Wednesday.

• BlackBerry maker RIM axing 2,000 jobs, 11 per cent of workforce

  Research in Motion, which has been losing ground to Apple, Google and even Microsoft in the mobile market, announced Monday it is cutting 2,000 jobs, or about 11 per cent of its workforce.

• RIM COO retires as company lays off one-tenth of staff

  Research in Motion will lay off 2,000 staff, or a little more than 10 percent of its workforce, and make changes to its senior management team, it announced Monday. Chief Operating Officer for Blackberry, Don Morrison, will retire, but Co-CEOs Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis will continue to share the CEO role and that of chairman.

• News Corp. unloads MySpace

  MySpace, which dominated the social-networking market in the mid-2000s before Facebook eclipsed it, has been sold by its parent company News Corp. to digital media company Specific Media.

• ST-Ericsson to lay off 500 as part of cost-savings plan

  ST-Ericsson this week said it would cut up to 500 jobs as part of a cost-savings plan that could help the company reach profitability sooner.

• Skype executives depart after Microsoft buyout

  Eight Skype executives have departed the company following Microsoft's $8.5 billion buyout in May, a Skype spokeswoman confirmed on Monday.

• Acer cuts staff in Europe, takes $150 million charge

  Acer is laying off 300 employees in Europe and taking a charge of US$150 million, as the company tries to streamline operations following the departure of CEO Gianfranco Lanci in March after a conflict with the company's management.

• Cisco offers early retirement to certain employees

  Cisco this week instituted a voluntary early retirement program, its first in two years, in an effort to reduce costs.

• Cloud storage startup Cirtas retreats

  Another cloud storage operation shut down last week when startup Cirtas Systems, which developed a controller for storage in the cloud, announced it was leaving the market to regroup.