Technology Industry Archive

Fred Wilson of Union Square Ventures noted on his blog that there is suspicion about the motives of Sequoia Capital, Ron Conway, Benchmark Capital, and others [UPDATE: including Foundation Capital] who have been warning investors to cut spending and prepare for a very rough period. But I’ve got to agree with Wilson and say that it just doesn’t ring true. Not that VCs are financial...

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The abilities that high tech has put into the hands of business are amazing. Even more astounding is how long it can take for companies and individuals to realize what they have in their hands and how it can be used. That’s what makes Ponoko of New Zealand so interesting. The company markets to people, mostly in the U.S., who want to see their own jewelry and other creations made but who...

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FBI arrests Entellium CEO, CFO — The FBI arrested Entellium’s CEO Paul Thomas Johnson and CFO Parrish Jones for allegedly falsifying revenue figures and presenting them to the board as part of a scheme to get about $50 million invested in the company. Last month an employee cleaning out the desk of a departed vice-president of sales found a second set of books that allegedly were...

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GigaOM had an interesting piece on how commodity prices, specifically aluminum, can be high tech bell weathers. Alcoa slashing its growth forecast and suspending a stock repurchase program suggests that overall sales of aluminum will be far off what was expected, which in part means lower sales expectations on the part of manufacturers of mobile phones, displays, notebooks, and so on. Blaming...

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Big Blue in Black — IBM reported its quarterly earnings earlier than expected, and as they’re up 22 percent, who can blame them? Gross profit margin for the quarter was two points higher than last year and revenue was up five percent (including three percent because of favorable currency conversions, which has been a factor for many high tech companies). According to the head of one...

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The Consumer Electronics Association is predicting that some key categories will see good sales during the holiday season. But this is not a report that should necessarily cheer anyone in the industry, because there are probably three big words fueling the “strength”: really low margins. Shawn DuBravac, the trade group’s economist, said yesterday that retail sales for consumer...

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Someone keep me from clicking send — For those addicted to working into the wee hours and complete exhaustion there’s a new meaning to morning after regret. That’s the feeling people get when they realize exactly what they sent in emails before they finally gave in to sleep. Google has a new tool to address this: Mail Goggles. It works with Gmail and will start asking you math...

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There’s plenty of news about AMD’s plan to split itself into two. One part will design chips while the other becomes a joint venture with investors from Abu Dhabi. But this isn’t a story just about AMD. Indirectly it’s about the entire semiconductor industry and the even bigger implications for the global economy when the companies that power everything from greeting...

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Linux laptops become boomerangs, strong returns — At least one OEM, MSI, is seeing much stronger returns on Linux laptops than on those running Windows, to the tune of four to one. Apparently people like the price, open the box when they get home, start the laptop up, and then realize that Linux is not Windows. As Adrian Kingsley-Hughes points out, that figure doesn’t say how many...

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The crisis of confidence on Wall Street is pushing up costs of variable-interest commercial loans, many of which are pegged to the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR). Handset maker Palm Inc., which has invested more than 12 percent of its sales in R&D in each of the last two years, or about $392 million, to supplant its aging Centro smartphones with new high-end, business Treo products,...

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