AllThingsD » economic crisis

House: You Will Go Digital on Feb. 17 and You Will Like It

John Paczkowski — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 22:37:23 +0000

Looks like the transition to digital TV will happen on Feb. 17 whether you like it or not.

The U.S. Senate voted unanimously Monday to delay the nation’s transition to all-digital television. Arguing that a major economic crisis might not be the best time for a congressionally-mandated switch, legislators pushed the mandatory conversion date from Feb. 17 to June 12.

But the U.S. House of Representatives didn’t buy that argument. Today, it torpedoed the legislation, saying a delay like the one proposed would confuse consumers and be a burden to wireless companies and public safety agencies waiting to use the spectrum the transition will free up. “In my opinion, we could do nothing worse than to delay this transition date,” said Joe Barton of Texas, the top Republican on the House Commerce Committee. “The bill is a solution looking for a problem that exists mostly in the mind of the Obama administration.”

Adobe Announces Crash® CS4 Professional

John Paczkowski — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 22:56:09 +0000

Well, no wonder Adobe won’t have an exhibition booth at Macworld Conference & Expo 2009–the company’s sacking employees who might have otherwise staffed it….

Citing the standard litany of economic tribulations, Adobe (ADBE) Wednesday reduced its fourth-quarter outlook and said it will cut 600 jobs around the world–about eight percent of its workforce. The company now expects revenue of $912 million to $915 million. In better times, that revenue target range had been $925 million to $955 million. “The global economic crisis significantly impacted our revenue during the fourth quarter,” said CEO Shantanu Narayen. “We have taken action to reduce our operating costs and fine-tune the focus of our resources on key strategic priorities.”

Adobe shares slipped nine percent to $20.50 in after-hours trading.

Nevermind the Baallocks, Here's the Econolypse

John Paczkowski — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 19:00:58 +0000

[ See post to watch video ]

Nevermind the Baallocks, Here's the Econolypse

John Paczkowski — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 19:00:58 +0000

[ See post to watch video ]

Yahoo to Start Bleeding Purple

John Paczkowski — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 16:45:27 +0000

[ See post to watch video ]

WaMu: Epic Bail

John Paczkowski — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 07:37:51 +0000

Add Washington Mutual (WM) to the list of troubled financial institutions felled by the current economic crisis. Thursday night, the lender was seized by federal regulators and sold to JPMorgan Chase (JPM) for $1.9 billion in hopes of preventing further damage to the country’s hard-hit economy. Under the deal, JPMorgan will acquire all of WaMu’s banking operations, including $307 billion in assets and $188 billion in deposits. “This institution was a big question mark about the health of the deposit fund,” said Sheila Bair, chairwoman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, on a conference call yesterday. “It was unique in its size and exposure to higher risk mortgages and the distressed housing market. This is the big one that everybody was worried about.”

WaMu’s failure is historic–the largest bank bust on record. The company’s assets are equivalent to about two-thirds of those held by the 747 insolvent thrift institutions and sold off by the Resolution Trust during the S&L crisis.

With more than 20 percent of global technology spending coming from the financial industry, WaMu’s failure and the collapse of other institutions are certain to have repercussions in tech. “This is game-changing,” Gartner (IT) analyst Joanne Correia said of the economic crisis recently. “People are going to stop new software deployments. They’ll cut in the applications space. In PCs and servers, everyone will stop putting in new hardware.”

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