Tag: ECONOMICCRISIS

In case you've been waiting for it, the second Internet bubble might be on the verge of bursting. Banks and mortgages aren't the only things collapsing in the now official recession -- Web 2.0 startups are starting to drop like flies. The most recent collapse is Twitter-competitor Pownce. The feature-packed micro-blogging service, backed by Digg founder Kevin Rose, was bought up by SixApart, the ...

As is the case with many businesses these days, high-tech recyclers have a tough row to hoe in light of current economic circumstances, according to Boing Boing. One California recycler, ACCRC, has seen a significant drop in profits since the market for scrap metal has started its sharp decline. While business had boomed for such companies during the recent heyday of copper and scrap metal, ...

The award-winning Canadian singer-songwriter Neil Young is bound and determined to tear down and rebuild the motor in Motor City, according to Autoblog and a piece that the singer wrote for Huffington Post. Sharing popular concerns about fuel prices and efficiency, Young has been hard at work in recent months, trying to develop practical electric car conversions. His masthead vehicle -- a ...

digg_url = 'http://digg.com/business_finance/Circuit_City_files_bankrupcy'; Even after shutting down 155 retail stores and announcing plans to cut around 17-percent of its 43,000 employees, Circuit City couldn't avoid the dreaded bankruptcy court. Today, the Virginia-based company (along with 17 affiliates) petitioned for Chapter 11 protection in Richmond as it attempts to survive under the ...

To be honest, we were surprised that we didn't hear this number along with the other doom and gloom professed during Motorola's Q3 earnings call, but the writing was very clearly on the wall. As part of the mentioned $800 million expenditure cut planned for 2009, 3,000 (more) of Moto's employees will be looking for work elsewhere. According to an unnamed spokeswoman, a "little over two-thirds of ...

Over the past few years, online and traditional outlets have ran hyperbolic editorials heralding the death of print. And while we've seen newspaper circulation shrink and seemingly timeless magazines such as Rolling Stone take severe cost cutting measures, nothing has really signaled that the printed word was really on its last leg. That is until this morning, when the Christian Science Monitor ...

We reported recently that phishing and spam scams are surging due to the economic crisis, as scammers look to prey on people's stress. Not to be outdone, malware attacks are increasing too, most likely because the writers are feeling the brunt of the collapse just like any other industry. As Ars Technica reports, the more a stock dropped in a day, the more the company in question was attacked ...

The facepalm is an expression that seems to be getting a lot of use lately, particularly on trading floors around the world as various global economic markets crumble. Traders hopped up on caffeine and sugar seem to be particularly emotive when things take a turn for the worse, making them quite entertaining to look at. That has spawned an aptly titled new site called "The Brokers with Hands on ...

It's made it through some tough times in the past (the other DIVX, anyone?), but it looks like Circuit City is now really up against the wall, and it's apparently considering some rather drastic measures to avoid becoming the largest retailer to enter bankruptcy protection in recent years. According to The Wall Street Journal, "people familiar with the company" say that Circuit City is ...

The economic crisis may spell trouble for Blu-ray and the next generation of HD media. The uncertainty in the markets has consumers scaling back their purchase plans for the holiday season, and big ticket tech items are suffering the biggest hits. Consumer Electronics Association (CEA, the organization behind CES) is predicting an increase of 3.5-percent in spending on gadgets in the fourth ...

Playboy is reducing annual costs by $12 Million dollars, and closing down its DVD division in order to return to profitability by 2009. In reducing costs, Playboy will lay off approximately 80 positions and significantly reduce travel, entertainment and overtime as well as forgo profit-sharing payments. The business has taken its biggest hit from the downturn in print advertising sales as well ...

Google continues to prove it's more powerful than God, defying not just market analysts, but also economic realities. While everyone else is tanking (you don't even want to look at your 401k), Google actually saw its revenue increase in the third quarter of 2008. The company reported a profit of $1.35 billion in the third quarter, up 31-percent from the same time last year, and even up 3-percent ...

We hope you're not too attached to that unlimited data and voice plan you just picked out from your cell phone provider. The current economic crisis is putting the squeeze on cell phone companies, and they're responding by capping so called "unlimited plans" and raising prices. Verizon Wireless announced that businesses that send text messages to users will be charged 3 cents per message, ...