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In this Issue: > General Interest |
> GENERAL INTEREST
General
A LinkedIn survey of 12,000 professionals worldwide found that 63% are either happy or very happy in their jobs. The feeling is that having a job in a tough economy, when others don’t, can make you appreciate what you have! The study also revealed that most professionals have a hopeful outlook about their future with their current employer. Fifty-two percent of global respondents agreed that if they work hard and demonstrate results, they have a good opportunity to advance in their company.
According to Google, more than 200 million Android smartphones and other devices have been activated around the world. That’s up from 100 million six months ago. That’s an incredible amount of growth for a platform that didn’t exist three years ago. Android’s growth has come at the expense of entrenched platforms, such as RIM’s BlackBerry and Nokia’s Symbian operating systems. Their presence in the market has shrunk since Android (and the iPhone) arrived.
The economy – Canada
On the heels of an October job loss of 54,000, Statistics Canada noted that Canada lost 19,000 more jobs in November, bringing the unemployment rate to 7.4%. Despite these recent declines, employment was up 1.2% (+212,000) from 12 months earlier.
Executive chartered accountants are far more pessimistic about the Canadian economy than they were three months ago. Just 16% of respondents were optimistic about prospects for the national economy over the next year, down from 43% the previous quarter, the quarterly Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants and Royal Bank of Canada Business Monitor survey found.
Real gross domestic product grew at an annualized rate of 3.5% in the third quarter after a second-quarter drop of 0.5. Statistics Canada notes real GDP in the United States grew two per cent over the same period. Final domestic demand has been slowing throughout 2011 compared with 2010. On average, it has recorded quarterly growth of 0.5 per cent since the start of the year, down from the average quarterly growth of 1.1 over the same period of 2010.
The Canadian Staffing Index rose to a reading of 98 in September according to the Association of Canadian Search, Employment and Staffing Services (ACSESS). Demand for temporary and contract workers often acts as a precursor to economic growth, according to ACSESS, meaning the staffing index is an indicator of the direction employment numbers will take a few of months down the line. The index measures the respective hours of labor performed by temporary and contract staff compared with the benchmark index of 100 established in July 2008.
The economy – US
A Robert Half survey suggests that about 16% of US employers will be looking to add professional level staff in the first quarter of 2012, with most employers staying the same and 6% anticipating cuts. Most (87%) are confident in their organization’s ability to grow; however, 67% anticipate some challenges finding the talent they need.
Information technology employment in the US rose by more than 7,000 jobs in October, to 4,064,500, according to the TechServe Alliance’s monthly index of IT jobs. On a year-over-year basis, IT employment has grown by more than 87,000 jobs since October 2010, or 2.2 percent.
The US Conference Board reported today its U.S. leading economic index rose 0.9 percent in October to 117.4 (2004 = 100), following a 0.1 percent increase in September and a 0.3 percent increase in August. “The October rebound of the [leading economic index] – largely due to the sharp pick-up in housing permits – suggests that the risk of an economic downturn has receded,” said Ataman Ozyildirim, economist at The Conference Board.
The economy – Outside North America
European Union (EU) growth will remain at a near standstill during 2012 and return to slow growth in 2013. Unemployment is forecast to remain at the current high levels. All main indicators point to a stalled recovery with considerable downside risks, according to the Autumn Economic Forecast published by the European Commission. No economic growth is now expected in the current and coming quarters.Consequently, Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is forecast to grow at a rate of only +0.5% in the EU and the Euro area in 2012.
The already extremely high Spanish unemployment level was up again sharply year-on-year by +6.7% or up by +275,000 individuals to 4.36 million in October 2011 according to the latest data published by the government.
German unemployment fell by -204,000 individuals to 2,737,000 in October 2011 when compared with October 2010, according to the latest preliminary data published today by the Federal Agency for Labour (BA). Month-on-month, unemployment fell by -59,000 individuals in October 2011 when compared with the previous month. The unemployment rate is now 6.5%.
The UK employment rate for those aged from 16 to 64 for the three months to September 2011 was 70.2%, down -0.4 percentage points on the quarter. The number of people in employment aged 16 and over fell by -197,000 on the quarter and by -109,000 on the year to reach 29.07 million, according to the latest data, published today, by the Office for National Statistics (ONS). This is the largest quarterly fall in the number of people in employment since the three months to July 2009. The unemployment rate for the three months to September 2011 was 8.3% of the economically active population, up +0.4 on the quarter.
The number of category A (Unemployed) job seekers, in France, registered with job centres in October 2011 was up by +4.9% to 2,814,900 compared with October 2010. Compared with the previous month, it was up by +1.2% or up by +34,400 individuals, according to the latest data published by DARES on behalf of the official government job centres (Pôle Emploi).
> COMPANY NEWS
AMD plans to lay off 10% of its global workforce and will terminate “existing contractual commitments” in a plan to cut costs. The restructuring plan, which includes the layoffs, should save US$200 million in operating expenses next year, which the company plans to use to fund AMD’s strategies for lower power, emerging markets and the cloud. The layoffs will hit workers across all functions globally and are expected to happen by the first quarter next year. AMD has had trouble recently since its manufacturing partner, GlobalFoundries, which was spun out of AMD in 2009, had problems manufacturing a new kind of chip for AMD. The issues led to a short supply of AMD’s Fusion chips and impacted the company’s third-quarter revenue.
An investigation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has been expanded to include Computer Sciences Corp.‘s business in Australia. “Intentional misconduct” had been discovered in Australia in addition to accounting errors. It appears the issues in Australia were on the scale of what happened with CSC’s Nordic operations but are “nonetheless disturbing.” In a filing with the SEC, CSC said it had suspended “certain personnel” in Australia but did not identify those involved. CSC has identified and recorded some US$19 million in “intentional accounting irregularities” and “unintentional accounting errors” related to its Australian operations, the filing added.
Nokia Siemens Networks is set to cut 17,000 staff around the world. The news comes as the company announced a strategy to cut operating and production expenses by $1.4 billion, and to refocus on mobile broadband and services. It will also cut costs of IT, property, procurement, general and administrative expenses, and reduce the number of its suppliers. Nokia Siemens Networks will consolidate sites, transfer activities to global delivery centres, reduce some central functions, integrate Motorola’s wireless assets, and simplify processes. Rajeev Suri, chief executive officer of Nokia Siemens Networks, said the company needed to “take the necessary steps to maintain long term competitiveness and improve profitability in a challenging telecommunications market”.
> MERGER & ACQUISITION ACTIVITY
Electronics retailer Best Buy Co. is buying MindShift Technologies Inc. for $167 million in an effort to grow its business Internet technology services offerings. Best Buy is facing tough competition in the electronics sector from discounters and online retailers such as Amazon.com, so it has focused on services like GeekSquad and Best Buy for Business that offers a wide array of computer-related services. The acquisition will help expand its IT offerings to small- and mid-sized businesses.
In hopes of making more realistic video game characters, Autodesk Inc. has bought Grip Entertainment. The Montreal-based startup has been making artificial intelligence (AI) technology used to design video games since 2007. Grip has worked with major development studios including Electronic Arts Inc., BioWare Corp. and Disney Co. with credits on recently released titles such as Army of Two, the 40th day, and Tron: Evolution. Autodesk, a US$8-billion design software company based in San Rafael, Calif., said it will incorporate Grip’s Digital Extra System and Character Control System into its existing Project Skyline group of products.
Japanese e-commerce company Rakuten is buying Canadian e-book and e-reader company Kobo for $315 million, in a bid to expand in the area of media downloads for consumers. Spun out of Indigo, a book, gift, and specialty toy retailer in December, 2009, Kobo offers e-readers, e-reader apps and an e-book catalog. An acquisition by Rakuten will give Kobo access to Rakuten e-commerce businesses in a number of countries in Asia, Europe, and North America. The Japanese company has been expanding recently in the U.K., France and Germany through acquisitions. In October, it acquired UK e-commerce site Play.com. Upon closing, Kobo will continue to maintain its headquarters, management team and employees based in Toronto. Kobo, which claimed over 5 million users worldwide in October, positions its e-reading technology as a social platform that allows readers to learn about the life of a book, connect with friends, share their sentiments, and engage in discussions while reading.
The top partner on CDN’s Top 100 Solution’s Top 100 Solution Providers rankings for 2009 and 2010 is about to get even bigger. Softchoice Corp. announced an agreement to acquire Oakville based Unis Lumin for $17 million in cash. Ranked as the #22 solution provider by CDN in 2010, Unis Lumin is a solution provider with offices across Canada, a strong business around managed services and a Cisco networking practice.
Mosaid has accepted a $590 million offer from Sterling Partners, ending the takeover battle it had been in with WiLan, who had made an offer of approximately $540 million. If the deal is confirmed by shareholders, the federal Competition Bureau and Industry Canada, Mosaid will be taken private. Mosaid owns thousands of semiconductor memory and wireless patents. About 70% of the $80.5 million in revenues from its last fiscal year came from memory licence fees, and the rest from wireless. If the deal goes through, other than having a US owner, Mosaid will remain headquartered in Ottawa, continue to do business as Mosaid with the current executive team remaining in place.
Yahoo has bought Interclick, a provider of targeted advertising services, for about US$270 million. The platform from Interclick has been optimized to work with large data volumes across multiple providers and marketplaces. Interclick in New York was founded in 2006 and was listed on the Nasdaq stock exchange in 2009. Yahoo is itself rumored to be a target for acquisition. The company is meanwhile on the lookout for a new CEO. Tim Morse, Yahoo’s chief financial officer has been the interim CEO after the company ousted former CEO Carol Bartz in September.
Adobe Systems has acquired privately owned Auditude in order to boost its video offerings with an advertising platform. Video advertising is a booming market, according to data from market research company comScore. Auditude streamed 344 million of the 6.8 billion online video ads that Americans watched in September, making them the seventh-largest source of such ads in the U.S., and the fifth-largest video advertising network. Auditude offers an integrated advertising system for video on PCs, smartphones, tablets, connected TVs and other products in the home, according to the company Web site. Following the acquisition, Adobe plans to combine Auditude’s platform with its own Flash Media Server and Pass products, which are used to stream video content and authenticate users. The company also plans to integrate Auditude with the Adobe Digital Marketing Suite, which already includes analytics and optimization products.
DragonWave Inc, an Ottawa maker of Ethernet backhaul for wireless carriers, plans to buy the microwave transport business of Nokia Siemens Networks for about $20 million. The firms have signed a deal which would also make DragonWave the preferred supplier to NSN of packet microwave and related products. NSN will continue to market and sell microwave solutions, but DragonWave will now be the manufacturerer and responsible for product development. As a result, DragonWave becomes closely aligned with a major manufacturer of cellular base stations with access to customers around the world.
Huawei Technologies will buy out the rest of a joint venture with Symantec Corp. for US$530 million. The venture, based in Hong Kong, was formed in 2008 to integrate Symantec storage and security software into appliances built with Huawei’s telecommunications equipment expertise. Symantec owns 49 per cent of Huawei Symantec Technologies, while Huawei holds 51 per cent. After the sale, which is expected to close in the first quarter of 2012, Symantec will receive royalties from Huawei for seven years for the technologies it contributes to the appliances. Symantec will still maintain its own business in China, which includes two research and development centers, and its own appliance business, said Enrique Salem, Symantec’s CEO, on a conference call Monday. The few Symantec employees who worked for the joint venture itself will move to other parts of Symantec, he said.
In a move expanding beyond its thin client business, San Jose, California-based Wyse Technology has acquired Trellia Networks Inc., a Montreal-based mobile device management (MDM) company focused on helping companies deal with the consumerization trend. Trellia’s cloud-based MDM solutions help IT departments take inventory of, control and manage mobile devices that run on different operating systems from a single platform. Trellia will be keeping its offices in Montreal and the team, along with product research and development, will remain in Canada.
Quartet Service Inc. is buying KLM Solutions, both are based in the Toronto-area. KLM Solutions has a specialization in virtualization while representing vendors such as Microsoft, Cisco Systems, Hewlett-Packard Co. and IBM. Quartet provides Internet, telephony and data services to mid-tier companies in the Toronto area, and made a splash in 2007 when it picked-up much of the consulting team from NexInnovations.
> PRIMARY SOURCES:
IT World Canada – http://www.itworldcanada.com
Ottawa Business Journal – http://www.ottawabusinessjournal.com
ZDNet – http://www.zdnet.com
Canada IT – http://www.canadait.com
Monitor – http://www.monitortoday.com
