E-Commerce Blog

Logitech is retreating from its fiscal 2009 forecast and preparing to trim about 15 percent of its global workforce in preparation for what is looking to be a grim retail year. The Switzerland-based company employs 9,000 workers and manufactures mice, webcams and other computer peripherals. Demand for such devices has taken a nosedive as both companies and consumers have retrenched on nondiscretionary spending. In December, the retail environment significantly deteriorated, and the company is expecting it to worsen even further in the coming months.

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Logitech Bends to Economy’s Ill Winds

Qualcomm Chief Executive Paul Jacobs generally has the latest and greatest cell phones. But he’s never owned the uber-trendy Apple iPhone. “Not until they put a Qualcomm chip in it,” Jacobs said in a September interview. It could soon be time for Jacobs’ first Apple phone. The company is widely rumored to be planning an iPhone nano, a smaller touchscreen version of its popular phone. One industry analyst says it will run on Qualcomm chips. The weeks leading up to the annual Macworld conference are typically filled with rumors of expected product announcements.

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Rumor Mills Buzz Over Qualcomm-Chipped iPhone Nano

The year-long U.S. recession has started to take its toll on the telecomm sector. AT&T and Verizon shares were hit hard Monday after being downgraded by Bernstein Research. The firm downgraded Verizon from market perform to underperform and AT&T from outperform to market perform. Verizon stock was down 7.16 percent to $32.15 per share and AT&T stock was down 4.35 percent to $28.15 in late-day trading on Monday. Verizon and AT&T shares were down 27 percent and 32.6 percent, respectively, from their 52-week highs.

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Telecom Shows Signs of Buckling Under Recessionary Pressures

Netflix is coming to a high-definition LG Electronics television near you. The two companies on Monday announced an extension of an existing partnership whereby LG will sell Internet-ready TVs capable of streaming content from a catalog of 12,000 Netflix movies. The service is already available on one of LG’s Blu-ray disc players. The firms will demonstrate the new high-def broadband TVs this week at the 2009 Consumer Electronics Show, the tech industry’s largest annual exhibition.

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LG to Show Off Netflix-Ready High-Def TVs at CES

High-tech job seekers should take heart. Despite the daily onslaught of grim economic news, the need for skilled information technology staff remains stable, according to the Robert Half Technology IT Hiring Index and Skills Report, released earlier this month. Twelve percent of chief information officers polled in the survey said they planned to expand their IT departments in the first quarter of 2009; 4 percent, by contrast, expected to make staff cutbacks. That net 8 percent hiring increase remains unchanged from the fourth quarter.

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Where the Tech Jobs Are, Part 1