National Semiconductor says softness in the semiconductor market, coupled with fewer orders, is forcing workforce reductions. The company says it will slash its worldwide work force by about 1,400 people, or about 10 percent.
The company currently has annual sales of about US$2.5 billion and 13,700 employees worldwide. The reductions will center on its Santa Clara, California, headquarters. The company says it will take a one-time charge of between $60 million and $70 million pretax, or 27 cents to 32 cents per share after tax, in its fourth fiscal quarter for the job cuts and other costs.
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Realtor.com finds itself a new home: Realtor.com paid $14 million to be America Online's exclusive real estate service on the proprietary online service, AOL's Digital City and on AOL.com. The three-year deal will also bring AOL bucks from ads and commission. Realtor.com brings 1 million listings to the site.
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Gateway drops 2000: Even computer companies are going for slicker monikers, more along the lines of "The Artist" and "Madonna." As of Thursday, the computer-maker formerly known as "Gateway 2000" will be simply, "Gateway," and sport a new logo, which has got to be better than that male/female morphing that The Artist came up with. But the company thinks that cow-spots can still be cool: In a press release issued today, Gateway wrote, "The cow spots, the best-known symbol of Gateway's success and its Midwestern roots, will remain closely tied to the company's brand." New ads with the slogan, "Let's talk about your Gateway," will premiere on prime time television tonight.
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Old dog's new trick: The Philadelphia Stock Exchange, the nation's oldest, said Wednesday the US Securities and Exchange Commission approved its plan to trade options on an index of computer-manufacturer stocks, called the PHLX Box Maker Sector.
The index is a price-weighted, narrow-based index of nine stocks from companies involved in the manufacture, marketing, and support of desktop and notebook personal computers and fault-tolerant systems. They include Apple Computer, Compaq, Dell Computer, Gateway 2000, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Micron Technology, Sun Microsystems, and Unisys.
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Ads galore: Internet ad services provider DoubleClick says it delivered an average of 60 million advertisements a day in March on the major Web sites that use its services. That's a 90 percent jump from the 32 million ads per day in December. DoubleClick also reports the number of advertisers that it serves rose 56 percent to more than 1,400 in the first quarter versus 900 in the fourth quarter.
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Team Java: IBM and Intel are announcing a joint effort to advance the cause of low-cost, network computers. Under the partnership being outlined today, the companies will work to optimize Java OS for Business -- a network computer operating system that IBM is co-developing with Sun Microsystems -- to run on Intel processors. IBM also said it would build Intel processors into future versions of its Network Station line of network computers.
Reuters contributed to this report.
