Yahoo! to go for a further round of lay offs

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Yahoo! looks to be continuing it’s slow slide into total meltdown with rumours of a third round of lay offs within the last 12 months.

An insider told the NYT that cuts could come as quickly as next week and there’s every reason to think that the next one will be well in excess of 1,000 jobs with the first thousand leaving in early 2008 and a further 1,400 at the end of last year.

Yahoo! still gets 500 million or so eyes over its pages each and every month but, with the internet still booming, it’s the growth where they’re missing out. While Google was out buying Blogger and YouTube, Yahoo! missed opportunities to pick up Facebook and last year had to spend an awful lot of resources in talks with Microsoft. The offer from Gates, Ballmer & Sons will be starting to look very good right about now.

Reduntantees revenge – companies grassed up for unlicensed software

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Sacked workers are getting their revenge and chance of a very good payout by reporting their former employers for running unlicensed software.

According the to Business Software Association, they are currently receiving 100 leads each week to follow up on companies who haven’t properly paid for and acquired the programs on which they run. My first thought was that it was just a straight two fingers up by those made redundant but apparently it’s the financial incentive scheme as introduced by the BSA in 2006 that’s proving the real draw.

In the States you can get anywhere up to $200,000 for a successful snitch. I should imagine you’d probably have to grass up a really big company for those kind of bucks. I’d imagine Microsoft and Apple would be a dead loss but, then, you never know. Perhaps they haven’t paid themselves…or each other.

(via Computer Weekly)

Nintendo hikes up the price of the Wii to £20 more

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The credit crunch is biting hard, and it seems that it’s chomping on Nintendo particularly hard – the company is being forced to raise the price of its multi-bazillion selling Wii console. Nintendo says:

“Due to the severe and continuing depreciation of the pound, we are, unfortunately, having to raise our trade price to UK retailers of Wii hardware. The price that they then offer to consumers is, of course, up to the retailers.”

Those retailers are invariably feeling the pinch just as hard, so I suspect it’ll go straight through to the price on the ticket. The Wii currently retails for £180, and this change will add £18-£20 onto that figure. Depressing, in more ways than one.

(via Eurogamer)

Nokia asks 1,000 staff to take voluntary redundancies

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Work for Nokia, and fancy a bit of a change of scenery? Well, now is a good time, because the company is inviting its employees to quit with a “voluntary resignation package”. Nokia says that it’s attempting to avoid the need for ‘involuntary redundancies’. Nicely put.

Nokia staff have between March 1 and May 31 to apply for the scheme, or until 1,000 employees have applied. The company is also encouraging employees to take time off rather than exchanging holiday for cash, and granting short-term unpaid leave to anyone who wants to take it.

(via Barrons)

Crunch Watch: Philips announces 6,000 job cut

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Philips is the latest casualty in ongoing global meltdown or their employees are, more specifically, as the European tech giant announced 6,000 redundancies today.

The cuts come after the Dutch company released figures of their first quarterly loss in six years seeing profits sink to €1.47 billion in the red. That sounds like the kind of sum that could end all things Royal Philips Electronics but then given that this time last year they made about the same amount…

Top 10 Tuesday: Credit Crunch Bargains – gadgets for under £50

So Bradford & Bingley get nationalised but the US Congress reject their multi-billion dollar scheme to bail out the fat cats and help steady the economy. Let’s face it, times are not looking economically awesome – not in the short to medium term at least – and it might be wise to rethink that jewel-encrusted gold MacBook Air.

But we wouldn’t want you to go gadget hungry here at TD. Certainly not. So rather than have to decide between your next meal and a DVD player I bring you the Top 10 Credit Crunch Bargains for under £50. Come, get your gadgets here, they’re lovely. Fifty pound a pound!…