Sun Posts Loss, Predicts Lower Revenues Inspite Software Growth

January 27, 2009

No signs of recovery in sight for Sun Microsystems, one of Silicon Valley’s former bellwether, which swung again to a loss.

For the quarter ending last December, the Santa Clara, Calif.- company posted a loss of $209 million – affected by a $222 million restructuring charge – and declining revenues of $3.22 billion. Sun’s server revenue fell 14 percent, to $1.37 billion. Storage revenue fell 13 percent, to $570 million.

However, Sun’s software business – including Java and open source software – constitutes a bright spot growing 21 percent year over year, now at an approximately $600 million annual run rate based on first and second quarter fiscal 2009 results.

Sun Microsystems ended the last quarter with $1,630 billion in cash and/or equivalents and has a current market capitalization of less than $3 billion. Which could be seen as being undervalued if not for its dismal outlook.

Looking ahead, Sun CFO Mike Lehman expects indeed revenues to decline on the current quarter, a mix of typical seasonal decline and high-end computers purchase delays from large corporations.

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Posted by TechPulse 360

Bartz Says She Has No Plans To Sell Yahoo But Leaves Open Search Sale

January 27, 2009

New CEO Carol Bartz said she didn’t join Yahoo two weeks ago to sell the company.

Yahoo is the best information site on the Web, says Carol Bartz

Yahoo is the best information site on the Web, says Carol Bartz

But she wasn’t as firm about the company’s search business, which has had trouble competing with Google search.

Bartz offered these and several other early insight on Yahoo during a fourth-quarter conference call where the company announced a 1 percent revenue decline and a $303 million net loss.

Yahoo is the “best information site on the Internet,” she said, and that is where its focus should focus be. It’s top properties, incuding its home page, Yahoo Finance and Yahoo News, are keys to keeping people coming for content, she added.

But so are planned new products, which she declined to discuss. “Things will be rolling out as I start to understand them,” she said.

But Bartz insisted that unloading the company was not in the cards. “Did I come to Yahoo to sell the company?” she asked.  “The answer is no.”

Minutes later she elaborated: “This is a fantastic Internet property. It really doesn’t deserve everybody trying to pick and pull it apart.”

But she was less steadfast about Yahoo Search. Search is a valuable part of Yahoo’s business because of what it says about user intentions, she said. And with quality improvements in the past year, its share has stabilized since the third quarter, she added.

The company needs to continue to improve search whether it goes up for sale or not, she said, but “I didn’t arrive here with preconceived notions about anything.”

Bartz said her biggest concern at Yahoo was that “this organization is very complex, therefore it’s hard for people to get speedy answers and make decision.”

It is a problem can be addressed, she added.

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Posted by Mark Boslet

Apple And IBM End Dispute As Papermaster Joins Apple

January 27, 2009

Apple said Tuesday that Mark Papermaster will lead the company’s iPhone and iPod engineering teams after all, ending a dispute with IBM over the veteran chip designer’s employment plans.

IBM chip designer joins Apple

IBM chip designer joins Apple

But he will not start until April 24, six months after leaving his former employer, IBM.

The two companies said they resolved a federal lawsuit that imposed a preliminary injunction barring him from joining Apple. IBM had sought the injunction to prevent the disclosure of confidential information to Apple.

Papermaster will join the Silicon Valley computer maker as a senior vice president of Design Hardware Engineering and report to CEO Steve Jobs

Under terms of the court settlement, he will have to certify to the court in July and October that he has not disclosed confidential information.

Papermaster was previously a vice president at IBM.

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Posted by Mark Boslet

Bridgelux Sees Huge Market For Environmentally Sensitive LED Lights By 2012

January 27, 2009

Silicon Valley startup Bridgelux said Tuesday that a roughly $10 billion annual market for low-power LED lights should exist by 2012.

Bridgelux introduces a LED arrays for lighting

Bridgelux introduces LED arrays for lighting

If true, this massive opportunity could spawn several large manufacturers of this next generation lighting and the chips that power it.

The Sunnyvale chipmaker obviously hopes to be one. On Tuesday the startup introduced a new family of light-emitting diode arrays with improved energy efficiency. Lights made with LEDs will become increasingly attractive to industry and consumers as costs per lumens, or light output, continue to come down.

The chips also don’t require the hazardous materials, such as mercury and lead, found in other lights.

“Lamps and luminaires that incorporate LED lighting sources will play an increasingly important role in our effort to reduce overall carbon footprint by minimizing energy consumption and eliminating the use of hazardous materials,” said Bridgelux CEO Mark Swoboda in a statement. Some government already ban traditional bulbs, he said.

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Posted by Mark Boslet

European Court Rejects Intel Bid For A Delay To EC Antitrust Case

January 27, 2009

Europe’s Court of First Instance on Tuesday rejected an appeal Intel filed in October to delay a European Commission’s antitrust probe into its business practices.

Intel now has missed an EC filing deadline. EC headquarters shown

Intel now has missed an EC filing deadline. (EC headquarters shown)

Intel had sough the delay in responding to charges it paid rebates to a major retailer to urge it not to carry computers with chips from rival Advanced Micro Devices. The EC also claims Intel paid a computer manufacturer to delay the launch of a product line with AMD chips.

The chip maker had wanted access to additional documents in order to defend itself. The company has maintained that its business procedures are lawful and just.

The court rejected Intel’s request saying Intel could defend itself without the extra information. The company has now missed the October deadline to respond to the EC claims.

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Posted by Mark Boslet

Cisco Kicksoff Green Technology Initiative Built On IP Networks

January 27, 2009

Cisco Systems will unveil on Tuesday a broad effort to use computer networks to manage and reduce an organization’s energy use.

EnergyWise to run on Ciscos Catalyst switches

EnergyWise to run on Cisco's Catalyst switches

The initiative, dubbed EnergyWise by the maker of network equipment, is the company’s first foray into the green energy market.

Cisco has before this developed guidelines to reduce internal energy use – by reducing travel, for instance – put has not turned these efforts into customer products.

EnergyWise is a free software download that works on Cisco’s Catalyst family of switches and its ISR routers. It allows organizations to monitor and regulate the amount of power devices on their networks use.

Cisco says the technology will roll out in phases. Starting in February, EnergyWise will be available to manage the energy consumption of devices such as IP telephones, surveillance cameras and wireless access points, potentially shutting off devices when they are not needed to save power.

By the summer, Cisco plans for EnergyWise to also work with personal computers and printers.

The target for early 2010 is to bring heating systems, lighting, air-conditioning units, elevators, security equipment and other devices under the energy-management umbrella.

Cisco said it is working with companies including Schneider Electric and Verdiem to deliver the capabilities.

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Posted by Mark Boslet

Texas Instruments Revenues, Profits Plunge; Cuts 12% Of Staff And Expects Future Losses

January 27, 2009

After, AMD and Intel, Texas Instruments is the next semiconductor behemoth to feel the pain of the economic recession.

Last quarter, the Dallas-based company saw its profit plunge 86% from a year earlier when it almost topped $800 million, on falling revenues of 30% at $2.49 billion. The chip company said it will cut its work force by 12%, or 3,400 employees.

Projections for the current quarter are even gloomier. TI now projects a a net loss for the quarter and revenues between $1.62 billion to $2.12 billion, compare to $3.5 billion last year and profits of $756 million.

Texas Instruments transitions to be a fabless company in 2009

Aside from being a difficult year, 2009 will be an important transition period in the semiconductor maker business as it prepares to stop manufacturing chips and relying on foundries like TSMC and UMC to build its next generations chips. A similar move made by Sunnyvale, Calif.- based AMD when it announced late last year the spin-off of its own manufacturing arm.

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Posted by TechPulse 360

Netflix Sees Jump In Revenues, Profits, Subscribers

January 27, 2009

I’ve been hearing over the past few months, that companies in the entertainment sector (like the movie studios, TVs…) should do pretty well in a recession with people staying more at home watching TV and movies, rather than going out.

Netflix could be one of the first to buck that trend. For its fourth fiscal quarter (ending last December), the DVD rental company posted stellar numbers:

  1. Revenues increased 19% to $359.6 million from $302.4 million, for the last year period;
  2. Profits jumped a whopping 45% to $22.7 million, up from $15.7 million;
  3. The number of subscribers totaled about 9.39 million, an increase of  718,000 in just a quarter (+25% year over year), compared with a 451,000 increase a year earlier;
  4. And the cost of subscriber acquisition fell 23% to $26.67.

In a nutshell, the los Gatos, Calif.-company is adding more subscribers, faster and more efficiently i.e. at a lower cost, than ever.

Looking ahead, Netflix a good 2009, ending the year with 10.6 million to 11.3 million subscribers, with revenues between $1.58 billion to $1.64 billion and posts $88 million to $98 million in profit. For its current first quarter, the Silicon Valley company is on route to reach between $387 million to $393 million in revenues and profits of $15 to $20 million.

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Posted by TechPulse 360

Siemens Posts Solid Quarter, Sticks To 2009 Targets

January 27, 2009

Siemens is sticking to its financial targets for fiscal 2009 – which ends in September – despite troubled economy.

For 2009, the German conglomerate expects revenues for its three core sectors (industry, energy and health care) to be in the range of €8 billion to €8.5 billion.

Today, Siemens reported its first-quarter results (Sept-Dec ’08) that beat analysts’ expectations with €19.63 billion in revenues (a 7% raise) and operating profits of €2.01 billion (a 20% increase). The company’s profit was led by its energy division, where profits more than doubled to 756 million euros.

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Posted by TechPulse 360

Microsoft Makes Final Test Version Of IE 8 Available

January 26, 2009

A new salvo is fired in the new browser wars.

Microsoft made available a near-final version of its next generation browser on Monday. Internet Explorer Release Candidate 1 is likely the last test version of the product before the finished program is released commercially.

The browser will be part of Windows 7 and available as a strand-along item.

Microsoft, which once had a lock on the market it took from Netscape, is facing competition from FireFox and Google’s Chrome.

IE 8 is faster and has some compatibility enhancements to make loading difficult-to-view sites easier.

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Posted by Mark Boslet

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