5 posts and columns on macroeconomic

Voices

The Case for the Fat Start-Up

in News on March 17, 2010 at 12:00 pm PT

Much has been written and said about the current economic downturn and the resulting lessons on how to run high-technology companies. Quite famously, Sequoia Capital, the premier venture capital firm in Silicon Valley, held a mandatory all-CEO meeting in fall 2008 during which it advised them to “Cut spending. Cut fat. Preserve capital.”

AMD Earnings Better When Ignored

in News on July 21, 2009 at 4:05 pm PT

When Intel CEO Paul Otellini said “the worst is now behind us,” he was clearly not referring to AMD. Posting earnings Tuesday afternoon, AMD reported an ugly loss of $330 million, or 49 cents a share–greater than the 47 cents analysts had been expecting.
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Voices

Ariba: JMP Sees Trouble in Services Business; Cuts Estimates

in News on December 11, 2008 at 3:17 pm PT

Ariba, which helps businesses manage spending via its software solutions, got a cautionary note today. The service business may not fare as well as analysts were assuming, given that product upgrades and extensions are met with more caution in the current economy. Also, Ariba has 170,00 square feet of office space it needs to sublet, with a shrinking pool of potential tenants–which could end up costing the company $150 million over the next five years.

CES 2009: Three Booths and a Clapping Toy Monkey?

in News on December 5, 2008 at 11:26 am PT

If a global manufacturer of computer hardware like Belkin’s not exhibiting at CES, who is? I posed that question jokingly earlier this morning, but turns out there’s a very real and ugly answer to it: Not Seagate. Not Logitech. Not Cisco. Not Philips. Not Yahoo. And not Sanyo, either.

Circuit City Reschedules Black Friday for This Wednesday

in News on November 3, 2008 at 10:26 am PT

Black Friday, the beginning of the traditional Christmas shopping season, will kick off far earlier than usual this year, thanks to Circuit City. In the aftermath of a particularly nasty second-quarter loss and a 95 percent decline in share price, the long-suffering electronics retailer said today it is shuttering 155 of its stores across 12 U.S. markets and sacking 17 percent of its domestic workforce.