Lenovo is laying off 3,200 employees and trimming down its smartphone portfolio in response to a slowdown in its PC and handset sales.The Chinese company faced a particularly tough market environment during the second quarter, its CEO Yang Yuangqing said Thursday. Demand is down for PCs and tablets, and competition in China’s smartphone market is cutting into sales.The company reported second quarter earnings that failed to meet its expectations. Net profit declined 51 percent year over year to reach US$105 million. Revenue increased by only 3 percent from a year ago, to reach $10.7 billion.In response, Lenovo has announced cost-cutting measures that will reduce its employee strength of 60,000 by 5 percent. It is also restructuring its mobile business group, to pave the way for a simpler product portfolio with fewer smartphone models.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Chuck Robbins has only been in the job three weeks but the new CEO of Cisco Systems is already dropping hints about acquisitions.On Wednesday, Cisco reported growth in its revenue and profits for the quarter just ended, and in a conference call to discuss the results Robbins was asked about Cisco’s plans for long term growth.“We’ll continue to be very acquisitive going forward, especially in areas like software and security,” he said.They’re two of the areas Cisco has flagged as growth opportunities in the past. They’re also areas where it can generate recurring revenue from subscriptions, something it wants to do more of.Cisco has already been on something of an acquisitions streak, with six purchases announced in less than five months. They include Internet security provider OpenDNS, which it’s buying for $635 million.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
People who pre-ordered the Surface Hub from Microsoft were notified Wednesday that their mega-display and conference room collaboration tool won’t arrive until 2016, at least four months after Microsoft originally planned.Pre-orders for the Surface Hub, which is a massive touch-sensitive and camera-equipped display designed to help people work together in an office and across the Web, opened July 1. Following strong demand for the devices, Microsoft said two weeks later that it would be reworking its manufacturing processes to keep up with interest, and would have to delay the devices’ roll-out. Wednesday’s announcement means companies that planned to install the devices know when to expect their new hardware.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Alibaba Group’s cloud computing and mobile business are surging, but its reported revenue in the second quarter missed analysts’ estimates, amid a slowing Chinese economy.In the quarter ended June 30, Alibaba generated over $3.2 billion in revenue, up 28 percent year over year, but short of the $3.39 billion consensus expectation from analysts polled by Thomson Reuters.The e-commerce giant raked in a net profit of US$4.9 billion, for a 150 percent increase, but the huge profit increase largely came from its film production arm, Alibaba Pictures. In June, the company reduced its stake in Alibaba Pictures, and “deconsolidated” it from the financial results. This resulted in a major gain for Alibaba’s investment income.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Fidelity National Information Services is buying financial software vendor SunGard for US$9.1 billion to broaden its range of enterprise banking and capital market offerings.The deal, announced Wednesday, ends SunGard’s bid to go public. The Wayne, Pennsylvania, company filed for an initial public offering in June, about 10 years after being acquired by a group of private equity firms. The firms that purchased SunGard for approximately $11 billion in 2005 include Bain Capital, Silver Lake Management and Blackstone Group.Some of the firms involved with the 2005 buyout were also SunGard customers. The vendor’s software covers a range of financial services functions including tax and compliance, insurance, retail banking and retirement administration. SunGard’s annual revenue totals $2.8 billion.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
When Google announced on Monday that it would create a new holding company called Alphabet, of which Google Inc. will be just one part, Larry Page said the new structure would allow the company to get more ambitious things done. But there was still a lot that he didn’t say.The move should free up time for Page and Sergey Brin to focus on Google’s forward looking projects like self-driving cars, and allow other leaders, like Sundar Pichai, to take care of the core businesses. It should also provide a bit more transparency for Google’s investors, allowing them to see better how those core businesses are performing.But there are questions too, about how Alphabet will evolve and which other companies might get their own CEOs. Here are four knowns and unknowns about what happened yesterday.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Google's restructuring could finally deliver to Wall Street something it's been after for years: more insight into what the company is spending on things like Nest, drones and health research.If that happens, it could boost the company's flat stock and entice the best engineers and tech workers to bypass the likes of Netflix and Facebook to sign up with the new Alphabet.+ ALSO ON NETWORK WORLD Meet Sundar Pichai, Google's new CEO +"Overall, we view the new structure as an elegant way for Google to continue to pursue long-term, life-changing initiatives, while simultaneously increasing transparency and management focus in the core business," wrote Doug Anmuth, an analyst with J.P. Morgan, in a report released Monday. "From a financial perspective, we believe the Street will soon be better able to evaluate the true performance of core Google, and may also become more accepting of Google's ongoing investment in emerging businesses such as Nest, Fiber, and driverless cars."To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The notion of vacuum electronics may sound ancient in high-tech terms but a new program from the scientists at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency aims to transform the widely-used equipment into the next century.According to DARPA, vacuum electron devices (VEDs) are critical components for defense and civilian systems that require high power, wide bandwidth, and high efficiency, and there are over 200,000 VEDs currently in service.+More on Network World: DARPA wants to make complex 3D printing trustworthy, dependable, safe+To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The hits just keep on comingImage by Thinkstock/raspberrypi.orgThe Raspberry Pi, as we’ve seen before, is really all things to all people – the uses to which the tiny computer has been put to are myriad. Here’s the latest roundup of the unique, original and inventive ways people are using the Raspberry Pi. Enjoy.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Infor made a $675 million bid to bolster its cloud and supply-chain management capabilities Tuesday with the announcement that it will acquire global order-management platform provider GT Nexus.The deal, said to be the second largest in Infor’s history, is expected to close within 45 days.Because GT Nexus is a fully cloud-based supply-chain platform, it will help Infor to accelerate its shift from on-premises software to true multitenant cloud, said Paul Hamerman, a Forrester Research analyst. “It also aligns well with Infor’s focus on manufacturing industries.”GT Nexus’ global trade and logistics software is designed to let companies in industries like retail, fashion and manufacturing to collaborate with global suppliers and optimize shipments to customers, distribution centers and retailers.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Symantec is selling its information management business, known as Veritas, to an investor group led by The Carlyle Group for US$8 billion as it looks to increase its focus on security.The sale is something Symantec has been working on for the better part of a year. The group buying Veritas also includes GIC, Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund, and other expected co-investors, Symantec said on Tuesday. Upon closing of the transaction, Symantec expects to receive about $6.3 billion in net cash.The plan is to return some of the proceeds to shareholders while also giving development of security products and services a cash injection. Like most areas of IT, security is going though a major change thanks to the growing popularity of cloud services.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Google may be best known for its ubiquitous search engine, but it has long been associated with seemingly whimsical ventures into areas as diverse as self-driving cars, drones and human aging. On Monday, it took a step toward making those “side” ventures more legitimate—and more transparent.Thus Alphabet was born, catapulting Google’s top executives into new roles with new titles. Cofounders Sergey Brin and Larry Page are now president and CEO of the Alphabet holding company, respectively, while Sundar Pichai, formerly a vice president in charge of Android, Chrome and Google apps, will become Google’s CEO.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
As part of a corporate reshuffle announced Monday, Sundar Pichai has been named the CEO of Google as it becomes a subsidiary of a new company called Alphabet. It’s yet another step up for the 43-year-old executive who has been on a meteoric rise through Google’s corporate structure.
Last October, Pichai was named Google’s head of product, which put him in charge of the company’s key businesses like Android, search and Chrome, while then-CEO Larry Page stepped back from the day-to-day responsibility of managing those parts of the company. This corporate restructuring seems to be another move along that path, since Page will become CEO of Alphabet, which will directly control businesses like the Calico life extension and Google X research and development divisions that aren’t in line with Google’s core business.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Opera Software, the company behind the Web browser of the same name, may be seeking a buyer after the company announced lowered expectations for its quarterly and annual financial results.The Norwegian browser maker previously said that it expected revenue of $630 million - 650 million in 2015, but revised that figure Friday to between $600 million and $618 million. It also said that its quarterly revenue would be $146 million, which is at the very bottom of its guidance range for the quarter and $5 million below the expectations of analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters.Opera’s reduced expectations are a result of lower-than-anticipated returns from company’s mobile advertising business, specifically the non-Instant Play video advertising products from AdColony. While Opera is probably best known for its Web browser, the company actually makes most of its money from its advertising business.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
New products of the weekOur roundup of intriguing new products. Read how to submit an entry to Network World's products of the week slideshow.Newly Observed Domains and HostnamesKey features: Newly Observed Domains and Hostnames tracks new hostnames, or fully qualified domain names, when first seen on Internet. This real-time knowledge allows organizations to discover malicious hostnames targeting users. More info.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
As part of its plan to set up to 12 manufacturing facilities in India by 2020, contract manufacturer Foxconn Technology Group is investing US$5 billion in a factory and other facilities in the western Indian state of Maharashtra.The Indian government has been coaxing foreign companies, including smartphone makers, to set up manufacturing units in India under its “Make in India” program.A number of smartphone makers are planning to make the devices in the country, with Chinese maker Xiaomi expected to announce its first phone manufactured in India on Monday.The government recently gave security approval to Huawei Technologies’ plans to set up a manufacturing facility for network equipment in the country, though the facility still needs final approval from the ministry of commerce as it is a Chinese company, according to sources close to the matter. India and China have a border dispute.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Microsoft added a provision to its bylaws Friday that allowed shareholders with a significant stake in the company to directly nominate up to two candidates to its board of directors.With the change, Microsoft will allow consortiums of up to 20 shareholders, who have owned a combined 3 percent stake in Microsoft for the past three years, to put forward nominations for up to 2 candidates or 20 percent of the board, whichever is larger. Functionally, that means a very small number of people and institutional investors have the power to nominate board members through the process.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Computer science and engineering students at Drexel University will have a new opportunity to use their skills for good with the launch of a technology program for promoting world peace.The Young Engineers Program, a partnership between the private university in Philadelphia and PeaceTech Lab in Washington, D.C., will give computer science and engineering students and researchers at Drexel a chance to focus on conflict zones around the world.The goal of the program is to use technology, media and data to prevent violent conflict in hot spots like Afghanistan, Sudan and Colombia, said Sheldon Himelfarb, president and CEO of the PeaceTech Lab.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
With the start of the U.S. professional football season around the corner, Microsoft unveiled the new tech it’s going to be providing coaches and fans this season as part of its ongoing partnership with the National Football League.Fans get an updated NFL app for the Xbox One and Windows 10 that provides them with video content, stats, replays and fantasy football information about their favorite teams, while coaches and players will be using new Surface Pro 3 tablets that help them strategize on the sidelines.The Xbox One app is designed to be a command center that fans can open up to get information about their favorite teams, fantasy leagues and all things NFL right from their couch. It’s an update to the app Microsoft released last year that provided fans with videos from their favorite teams, information about their fantasy teams and access to live video from the NFL if they pay for the right TV channels. Starting this year, users can now pick out two favorite teams instead of one, so they can easily follow their hometown favorites along with a local franchise.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
There was no tech talk in last night’s GOP presidential debate.I told you it would be a quick rundown.The San Francisco Chronicle uses a few more words:
The most significant reference to technology or Silicon Valley during Thursday’s televised Republican presidential debate came during a commercial for an upcoming movie about Apple founder Steve Jobs.In the main debate between the 10 leading candidates in the polls, the word “technology” wasn’t uttered once. Other than Florida Sen. Marco Rubio making a quick mention that he alone understands the “disruptive changes” caused by tech businesses like Amazon, there was scant discussion of the innovation economy.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here