Gawker
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leaks
Tesla Motors Moneyman Revs His Mouth on Camera
A mysterious video of a Tesla investor talking about a rumored investment in the company has popped up on YouTube. Valleywag has identified the blabbermouth: Victor Morgenstern, chairman of a Chicago private-equity fund. More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by Joshman Gesamtstrecke: Somebody please chop the first 30 seconds off the video. Also, ye with sports cars, please hang up and drive,... 2 Responses | Other threads
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principles
Give Me Liberty or Give Me Taxpayer Money
Clever libertarians don't just rail against government spending: They do something about it. Facebook investor Peter Thiel took $8 million from New York's pension fund — while setting himself up to avoid millions in taxes. More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by Carol Gardens: How is the Roth IRA situation even possible? Since you can only contribute $5000 per year? And it was even... 6 Responses | Other threads
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confirmed
Google to Lay Off 200 Employees
Make it official: Google's not immune from the bad economy and plummeting ad market. We've been hearing for weeks that Google would have layoffs. Google is cutting 200 employees today, the company now confirms.
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By Owen ThomasComment by TheHonJudgeSmails: I long for the day when spokespeople respond immediately when contacted for comment by a blog. 3 Responses | Other threads
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meltdowns
Nouriel Roubini Copters His Way Back Home
Who's the most popular guy in the midst of the worst economic crisis in decades? Why, none other than Nouriel Roubini, New York University's own Dr. Doom. He just got back from a world tour. More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by HoneyDiores: The cottage industry in doomsaying is a racket. Doom is a product and a vision that can be as easily... 1 Responses | Other threads
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confirmed
Apple Source Confirms 50 Layoffs in Sales
A source in Apple's enterprise group confirmed the company had layoffs today. Fifty salespeople lost their jobs — even as the blogosphere collectively scoffed at the idea that layoffs were happening. More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by iplaudius: Enterprise sales have likely fallen due to the economy. The jobs of salesmen are contingent on their being able to... 3 Responses | Other threads
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meltdowns
CEO's $500,000 Salary Burns Startup Into Fire Sale
8020 Media hoped to revolutionize the magazine business. Instead, it has circled down the drain, ending up in the hands of shadowy investors after a new CEO with a Condé Nast résumé looted the startup. More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by RonnSicTorossian: Well, the history of Fox aside, this post seems to be more smoke than fire. FYI, the Times covered the same... 6 Responses | Other threads
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layoffs
You've got pink slips: AOL axes 700 of 7,000. Memo!
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online advertising
Layoffs at Federated Media Signal Blogs' Ill Health
John Battelle is the salesman for a host of indie sites, from the futuristic Boing Boing to the Web-obsessed TechCrunch to mommyblog Dooce. What does it say that his company, Federated Media, is canning workers? More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by TrilbyAuxo: I missed the former story on how he tried to misuse other blogs for a Microsoft campaign. I think what... more » | Other threads
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layoffs
Google's Loss of Innocence: 100 Jobs Cut
The Magical Kingdom of Larry and Sergey has laid off 100 full-time recruiters, a tipster tells us. Inevitable, given the economy. But a crushing blow to Google's self-image as a kinder-than-thou employer. More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by Hydroceph: But they've got money to grope titties in ice bars? how does that work? 5 Responses | Other threads
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livejournal
The Russian Bear Slashes a Social Network
The bubble in social networking has burst, decisively. LiveJournal, the San Francisco-based arm of Sup, a Russian Internet startup, has cut 12 of 28 U.S. employees — and offered them no severance, we're told.
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By Owen ThomasComment by RevHalofan: How do I archive my blogs over there somewhere else? This is like mom throwing my diary in the fireplace,... 9 Responses | Other threads
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startups
Why Halsey Minor Can't Have Nice Things
Dotcom mogul Halsey Minor, the CNET founder, has spent freely on real estate, artwork, and startups. He's having trouble keeping them all. The latest bauble to run aground: San Francisco magazine publisher 8020 Media. More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by hminor: Owen I invested $6 mm of my own money against an idea I had and found others who shared to... 1 Responses | Other threads
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schadenfreude
A Six-Figure Car at Silicon Valley's Repo Man
The first reaction of those who dwell in California's cradle of technology to the recession was blithe indifference — Wall Street's problem, not theirs. How swiftly they learned otherwise. A tipster sends in photographic evidence.
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By Owen ThomasComment by SherlockAtalanta: Wow, apparently no one here knows anything about mercedes. The "v12 biturbo" sticker he has on the back is not stock.... 4 Responses | Other threads
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blind items
You're Fired, Er, No You're Not
Sequoia Capital, the backer of Apple, Yahoo, and Google, ordered its startups to slash their payrolls this fall. We hear one CEO fired people so enthusiastically he had to retract some of his pink slips. More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by Mafalda para Presidente: Well, regardless of how idiotic the gesture, it's still better than being fired. 2 Responses | Other threads
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meltdowns
Facebook employee unloads company gear on eBay
Times are tough at what was Silicon Valley's hottest startup last year. So tough that one Facebooker is auctioning off a company-issued Jack Spade laptop bag.
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By Owen ThomasComment by ShashirekhaBabalon: No self-respecting hipster would be caught with a bag like that. Who the hell is Jack Spade anyway? ... 1 Responses | Other threads
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forecasts
Get ready for a three-year recession
Everyone's ready for the Greatest Depression to be done. Economists think it will be over by the middle of next year. What if it isn't? More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by JasonCalacanis: I'm sorry, this is actually somewhat intelligent and makes some interesting points--how the hell did it get posted under Owen's... 7 Responses | Other threads
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obituary
The death of CNET's media-conquering dreams
CBS is laying people off at CNET — no surprise, since the entire media business is fitfully contracting, and after a merger, cuts are a given. But it signals the end of CNET's grandiose ambitions.
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By Owen ThomasComment by VitasPappie: Sir Winston Thriller, Uhhhmmm, it was CBS, not NBC. Sort of undermines your credibility when you get the parent company wrong.... 3 Responses | Other threads
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Yahoo Layoffs
The long goodbye
Everything takes forever at Yahoo, the once high-flying, now famously sluggish Internet giant. Today's layoffs of 1,500 employees have been expected for months. And yet the strange thing is so many Yahoos seem unprepared.
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By Owen ThomasComment by Alaska Miller: Back in '99 I worked as a barista at Yahoo's Wolfe Rd campus. The amount of people that came to... 9 Responses | Other threads
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leaks
Yahoo's secret layoff doublespeak revealed!
Yahoo isn't firing people en masse — it's "getting fit." That noisome euphemism for today's layoffs of 1,500 people must have hissed forth from the brain of some overpaid management consultant. Likewise for pages upon pages of instructions on how to sack employees — which Valleywag has obtained.
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By Owen ThomasComment by FeliceCrow: Having to laying off an employee is one of the most difficult professional situations I've ever been in - from... 5 Responses | Other threads
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meltdowns
A guide to Yahoo's mass layoff
Yahoo hasn't been able to do anything right lately. Why should Wednesday's job cuts be any different?
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By Owen ThomasComment by ShrigauriPelican: I work at the Y!. There has been no directive that I've received about being in by 9 AM or... 5 Responses | Other threads
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jason calacanis
Internet blowhard's bailout plan worst economic idea ever
Many people ask us if Jason Calacanis, the Internet entrepreneur, is stupid. No, but he says stupid things. While he's an expert at timing the market, his plan to fix the economy is all backwards.
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By Owen ThomasComment by TMonster: I'm really tired of people like Calcanis who think they know everything because they have been successful in tech or... 1 Responses | Other threads
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meltdowns
Facebook cancels employee stock sale
So much for Silicon Valley's latest get-rich-quick scheme. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has cancelled a plan to let employees cash out their shares early.
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By Owen ThomasComment by giddieup: i wonder if next week we gonna see articles here saying mass exodus in facebook 2 Responses | Other threads
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meltdowns
Recession officially a year old
What, now they tell us? A recession is not a recession until the number-driven meritocrats of the National Bureau of Economic Research declare it to be one. And now they have. The current recession actually began a year ago, in December 2007. The past 11 months? Blissful ignorance. [MarketWatch]
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By Owen ThomasComment by Churchill: One year down, two years to go! Sadly, this is true!! 1 Responses | Other threads
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meltdowns
We can't even afford chicken feed
The recession has an upside, right? As consumers cut back, austerity trend pieces told us chicken was supposed to supplant beef as what's for dinner. But Pilgrim's Pride, the large poultry producer, has gone bankrupt right after Thanksgiving.
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By Owen ThomasComment by NotChoinski: Expensive feed because corn is now the new 'fuel' as well as the old 'food'. Great way to link two... 2 Responses | Other threads
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meltdowns
It's Wall Street Journal official: we're all gonna die
What little hope I had was crushed by the WSJ this morning. Under the non-alarmist headline, "Tech Shares May Fall Further," the Journal lists every single reason the tech industry is screwed. If you can make it through the first fourteen stomach-churning paragraphs, there's this one ray of semi-hope: More »
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By Paul BoutinComment by abettertomorrow: @sample32: the journalistic theme is generally GOOG='good','heroic','market leader','winner' and YHOO='missed the boat','loser','mis-managed' but - YTD - YHOO has marginally out performed... 1 Responses | Other threads
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meltdowns
It's New York Times official: e-commerce has shrunk
Brad Stone blogged the bad news: "During the first 23 days of November, according to a report to be released later on Tuesday by the research firm comScore, consumers spent $8.19 billion online, a 4 percent drop from the same period last year. That marks the first annual decline since e-commerce took off." You can read the rest of the tragic stats in ComScore's press release.
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By Paul BoutinComment by Migrant Blogger: E-commerce is shrinking in a shrinking economy. I do need to know how this is news. Seriously. 1 Responses | Other threads
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meltdowns
eBay traffic gradually falling
I could spend all day unspinning Henry Blodget's hyperbolic headlines. "eBay Traffic Plummeting" actually means "eBay traffic gradually declining." Unique visitors for October were off 10 percent from a year ago. That's a much smaller slip than the traffic at my local Starbucks. But still, yeah, we're all gonna die.
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By Paul BoutinComment by HymanHobbit: Ever since ebay raised their fees on pretty much whatever they wanted whenever they wanted I stopped selling everything there.... 1 Responses | Other threads
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meltdowns
Wall Street Journal traffic doubles, but no ads
The Wall Street Journal's website traffic doubled in October as nervous-wreck investors tracked the economy's nosedive. But the usual WSJ advertisers — banks and luxury items such as watches — aren't buying ads to go on all those pageviews. Usually, advertisers confirm their planned holiday spending level to the Journal by October, so the paper can be sure to make space for them. This year, silence. It's the same at many other business publications. Good thing I already got laid off, so I don't have to worry about it.
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By Paul BoutinComment by macbeach: Any ideas on why their traffic numbers are doing so well? I'm a subscriber, but I rarely go there for my... 1 Responses | Other threads
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rumormonger
Music community Buzznet lays off 10 out of 89
"15 people laid off there today," says a tipster via email. "On a FRIDAY... Ouch. Have confirmation it’s across the board (sales, product, development etc.)" Our tipster didn't get it quite right — a company official says it was actually 10 out of 89 employees — just above the fashionable 10-percent cut high-profile VC firm Sequoia Capital established with its doom-and-gloom memo. Dear Buzznet employees: Please email us.
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By Paul BoutinComment by Paul Boutin: New email: "Yeah, it's a sad Friday here at Buzznet. "Company was downsized by 8%, according to execs, who held a staff... more » | Other threads
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meltdowns
Palm, smartphone maker, in worldwide layoffs
A tipster tells us that Palm, the troubled smartphone maker, is laying off 10 percent of its staff. I called a spokeswoman at the company, who confirmed the layoffs but not the number of employees affected; Palm, at last count, had about 1,050 employees. She also said the company would make "program cuts" — Valleyspeak for dropping some future products. Palm has been hammered by competition from Apple's iPhone and Research In Motion's BlackBerry; it is in the midst of a turnaround led by its chairman, Jonathan Rubinstein, a former Apple executive and Steve Jobs confidant. Rubinstein, left, has hired many former Apple employees at Palm — so much so that, rumor has it, Jobs called Rubinstein up to scream about it. But the layoffs and program cuts suggest he may not be able to complete his ambitions for a complete revamp of Palm's product line.
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By Owen ThomasComment by Haggie: Only laying off 10% of its workforce in this market, should be seen as a sign of strength, not weakness... more » | Other threads
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meltdowns
Cisco kills Christmas
"There should be no Business Group, Technology Group or Business Unit-funded holiday parties." That's the extra bullet through the heart in an email being sent around Cisco. I've screencapped only part of it, because I promised not to provide any pointers to my leaker. Here's the ASCII text version: More »
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By Paul BoutinComment by GarthSatyr: Cisco has a lot of fat and redundancies .... the financial crisis and economic crash has led to entire segments... more » | Other threads
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Aruba Networks
Another Wi-Fi player falls
It's the grand irony of Wi-Fi, a remarkably useful way of connecting to the Internet which has nevertheless proved to be a tough business to make money in. Aruba Networks, a maker of Wi-Fi equipment, is rumored to have twice spurned Cisco's advances. Its shareholders will likely regret that; the company, which went public last year, has seen its shares plummet more than 90 percent from their peak. And it is nowlaying off 10 percent of its staff, we hearcutting costs by 10 percent, including some layoffs. Aruba's equipment was designed to withstand war-zone explosions — but not market implosions. Update: The company has reported earnings and confirmed costs cuts of 10 percent, though not all of that will come through the elimination of jobs.
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By Owen ThomasComment by Figaro: Wrong tip... "Aruba Networks Announces Record Revenues of $52.4 Million for Fiscal First Quarter 2009" [www.marketwatch.com] 1 Responses | Other threads
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Tim the IT Guy
Want to fix the economy? Fire your sysadmin
Sooner or later we need to slam shut the door on technical have-nots. Pew Research found that nearly half of adults surveyed need help setting up computers and cell phones. Ars Technica notes what follows: Kids are always fixing their parents' PCs. But they don't take these insights to the logical conclusion: It's time to fire the IT support team. More »
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Comment by Incognito: Can we just fire the IT guy instead? Just kidding. 3 Responses | Other threads
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meltdowns
Why air taxis failed to take off
A classic tech dream: Reinvent every facet of an existing business, from top to bottom. The personal computer industry was built on the impossible dream that there would one day be a computer on every desk — an example which inspires countless attempts to reengineer the virtual world. Most prove to be expensive busts. Like the air-taxi business. Eclipse Aviation, which made small jets which its backers hoped startup airlines would fly from point to point at a cost lower than private jets, failed to meet payroll last week, and only now has scraped up financing to pay its employees. More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by theglue: The problem with taxis is that you put your life at risk every time you get in one in places... more » | Other threads
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stats
October e-commerce up a humiliating 1 percent
The accompanying chart from TechFlash says it all: Online sales just aren't growing anymore. October's 1 percent growth over October 2007 is the worst performance measured by ComScore since they began tracking stats in 2001. TechFlash quotes Gian Fulgoni, chairman of the research firm: "We can only hope that the recent sharp drop in oil prices will cause a continued easing of inflation and a strengthening in consumer spending as [we] enter the critical holiday shopping season." We can only hope? Dude, we can get down on our knees and pray.
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By Paul BoutinComment by loslosbaby: We're in the e-commerce business as a store provider and its looking good for our stores now. It all... more » | Other threads
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Ben and Mena Trott
Six Apart founders return from Disneyland, mouse ears held high
All right, all right: Perhaps it was a tad bit mean-spirited to begrudge young parents their first vacation to Disneyland with a child. Six Apart president Mena Trott, who spent the weekend in the happiest place on earth with husband and CTO Ben Trott, is hilariously unapologetic about taking a vacation right after laying off 16 staff members at the blog-software company they cofounded. Beating Valleywag to the punch, she's written the worst captions she could invent on pictures of her highly adorable daughter and way hot husband at the theme park. Not that this will be any comfort to the people she laid off, who will only remember how Trott followed up the cuts by announcing that she was going to Disneyland in the manner of an NFL player who just spiked a football in the end zone.
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By Owen ThomasComment by michaellamb: If they are "super rich" and they laid off workers, then they suck. Captions were funny but i'm sure the laid... 6 Responses | Other threads
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layoffs
Firing fad spreads outside the Valley
Hatteras Networks, as the name suggests, is in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. The company bragged to the Wall Street Journal that they've laid off 20 of 80 employees, weeks after Denton and Calacanis beat them to it. Tough times, totally awesome decisions! I only hope you recognize this one-company trend story for what it really is: An ad. The message is at the end: "Revenue has grown more than 100% every year for the last three years." Now they're sure to get a decent acquisition offer. All they had to do was fire the 20 most problematic employees.
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By Paul BoutinComment by macbeach: Theory has it that most of this country uses an "at-will" employment regime, meaning that companies can terminate people for... more » | Other threads
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Ben and Mena Trott
Layoffs? They're going to Disneyland!
Six Apart, the San Francisco blog-software company which helped spark the blogging boom, just laid off 16 of its 200 employees. And its top executives took a 15 percent paycut. Such noble sacrifice! Except that those cutbacks have not crimped the holiday plans of cofounders Ben and Mena Trott. She surprised her husband with an irony-free trip to Disneyland. That they can so blithely afford the trip reminds me of persistent rumors that the couple cashed out some of their shares in the privately held company when it took an earlier round of venture capital. (Photo by Jackson West)
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By Owen ThomasComment by Penelope Trott: Owen, why do you hate my parents? 3 Responses | Other threads
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layoffs
Rearden Commerce cuts 50 people
A tipster sent in word that Rearden — an e-commerce startup from Foster City — is rumored to have cut 72 people. We hear the actual number is closer to 50 out of 375. The company provides a "personal assistant portal" that streamlines travel planning, reservations, and general logistics within corporations. Or something. Our tipster's contention is that no one, especially customers, is quite sure just what exactly the company does. Rearden raised $100 million in funding back in April of this year and claims to have signed off service contracts with 1,700 companies. Let us know if there's anything more.
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Comment by DagnyTaggart: Actually, no severance is highly logical - it's all about supply and demand. Right now there is an excess of people... 2 Responses | Other threads
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mark zuckerberg
Why Facebook is still hiring
The revolving door at Facebook has been swinging less of late. Two top designers, Katie Geminder and Eston Bond, left in August and September. But the economic crisis seems to have scared the rest of the social network's staff into their seats, wondering when the ax will fall. There have been no layoffs, but we keep hearing tips from inside there's a hiring freeze on. In fact, there's not: Facebook's unofficial second-in-command, COO Sheryl Sandberg, asked CEO Mark Zuckerberg to institute a freeze, and got turned down cold. More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by babyjesus: All the while, it is spending heavily on servers; Facebook's pages, which must chart a user's social connections to determine... 8 Responses | Other threads
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meltdowns
Broke, homeless, laid-off Americans buying more videogames
Good news! October videogame sales were up 18 percent to $1.31 billion. Most of the growth comes from increased game sales, but Nintendo sold a surprising 803,000 Wii consoles.
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By Paul BoutinComment by skc15: An unemployed buddy of mine just had to send his Wii back for refurbishing. No money=lots of time to... more » | Other threads
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Transformers blows up this weekend. Need to know more? io9 gets down and dirty with the superbots.
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Gizmodo's just reviewed two great smartphones, the Palm Pre and the iPhone 3GS. Here's a guide to help you decide which is better for you.
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The Life of Steve Jobs - So far.
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