National Semiconductor, Applied Materials Announce Layoffs

National Semiconductor (NSC: 44.94 -0.86%) and Applied Materials (AMAT: 8.69 +3.21%) both announced layoffs today. National is cutting about 5% of its workforce, or 330 employees. Applied Materials is cutting about 12%, or about 1,800 employees.
Semiconductors have been struggling for sometime as a slowdown in consumer spending hits demand for National Semi and Applied’s demand. [...]

Cisco Announces Hiring Freeze; Plans $1B Cost Cuts

San Jose-based Cisco Systems (CSCO: 15.561 +3.19%) announced today that it intends to trim $1B from its expenditures and also freeze hiring. The cost cuts will come from limiting travel, events, and relocations. Cisco was one of the more active tenants in the North San Jose/Milpitas submarket over the past two years, and is the [...]

Postal Service Considering Layoffs; First Time in History

Talk of United States Postal Service layoffs is gaining steam. For the first time in history, the postal service is considering cuts of up to 6% of its 685,000 employee workforce. Normally the Postal Service would just raise stamp prices to cover deficits, but perhaps that avenue is no longer an option?
In September the Postal [...]

DHL Killing US Ops; Bad News For ProLogis

DHL announced today that it is terminating its US domestic operations, and along with it 9500 jobs. Deutsche Post, which owns DHL, announced it is halting all domestic US ground and air operations after mounting losses. DHL has already cut some 5,000 jobs this year, and this announcement will cut a further 9500, bringing the [...]

Nortel Announces Plans to Terminate 1300 Jobs

Nortel Networks (NT: 0.478 -8.08%) announced its plans to terminate some 1300 jobs through next year. Nortel’s stock has dropped over 90% over the past year. This most recent quarter saw them taking significant amounts of write-offs and forecasting slower growth and lower profit.
Norton has a presence in Santa Clara at 4655 Great America Parkway. [...]

Silicon Valley Layoff Announcements

Another day….and another set of layoff announcements around the valley. The latest companies to announce layoffs are:

LinkedIn - Mountain View, CA

10%, or 36 employees

AMD - Sunnyvale, CA

3%, or 500 employees
cuts to be global

Cadence - San Jose, CA

12%, or 625 employees

Intersil - San Jose, CA

9%, or 140 employees

Google Scraps Yahoo Partnership

After months of working to overcome anti-trust issues, Yahoo (YHOO: 9.79 +7.11%) and Google (GOOG: 278.998 -0.42%) have called off their “strategic partnership” that would have Google selling ads on Yahoo web properties. Yahoo struck this partnership in a move following it fighting off Microsoft, which earlier this year offered $33-36 per share for the [...]