Packard Bell NEC is expected to trim its workforce by 1,000 people, the Japanese business daily Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported today. The US division of Japan's NEC, based in Sacramento, California, had been asked to slash spending to stem losses the company has suffered in the US market and is expected to announce the layoffs in January. The company employs 6,000 people in the United States.
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When you care enough to send the very best: Determined not to let email short-circuit its iconic stature in American culture, Hallmark has turned to the most mainstream of Internet sites, Yahoo, to promote the electronic version of its greeting cards. The Hallmark Connections Shop will be accessible directly from Yahoo - offering access to approximately 1,700 Hallmark electronic greetings - thanks to a promotional deal struck between the two companies, the terms of which were not disclosed.
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Industry of the year: The tech industry truly caught the eye of the mainstream media this year, with Intel's Andy Grove named Time's Man of the Year - and now Compaq Computer honored as Company of the Year by Forbes Magazine.
"If you think Compaq is just an assembler and marketer of boxes, you are behind the times," the magazine bubbled. "Since taking over the Houston-based Compaq in 1991, Eckhard Pfeiffer has put together the preeminent Wintel computer company, with US$25 billion in sales in 1997. No other company - not Dell Computer, not Hewlett-Packard, not IBM - even comes close in the clone business." And Forbes didn't just look at tech firms, but chose Compaq out of a pool of more than 1,200 public companies.
Reuters contributed to this report.
