Depressing

Here is what the technology news looks like in my world:

  • Oracle (ERP company) to lay off 500 jobs – mostly affecting the sales and consulting side of their business.  This is consistent with what we are seeing in the local market.  I truly believe that I am keeping a former coworker from getting laid off simply because I have him engaged in a project.
  • Google to lay off 100 recruiters and close satellite engineering offices.
  • Seagate (hard disk manufacturer) to lay off 2,950 people globally or 6%.
  • Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple, is taking a 6 month medical leave.  Last time he was not at the helm, Apple almost went under.  Apple stock fell sharply after the news yesterday.
  • Microsoft is working hard to reduce cost in hopes of avoiding layoffs.
  • Nortel (manufacturer of large phone systems) filed for bankruptcy yesterday. It is rumored that the Canadian government will bail them out. Given their US footprint, it will likely lead to layoffs in the US. (Last time they had something like this happen, they laid off 50% of their staff in their huge bay office – and did it in one day!)
  • Intel expects to announce a 23% drop in Q4 earnings when they announce later this afternoon.  UPDATE: They announced a 90% drop!!!  Holy shit!  I’ve been hearing some rumblings from friends and former co-workers that it will likely mean some more layoffs.
  • Motorola is laying off 4000 employees.
  • Autodesk (as software company) is laying of 750 employees.
Doing some quick math, that is over 8000 jobs lost this week with more potentially occurring later.

And, the news will just get worse each day.  

How fucking depressing!

What do you think?

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