And .. Another one bytes the dust

[Spider]

Source & Comments

[/color][/u][/b][/url]


(Credit: Circuit City)

Say good-bye to Circuit City
November 4, 2008
By: Don Reisinger | 53 comments [/center]
When Circuit City announced on Monday that it was closing 155 stores amid financial trouble, it didn't surprise me at all. If you've been following this page over the past year and a half, you know that I've been saying since the beginning that Circuit City doesn't have the chops to stick around and compete with Best Buy.

And although yesterday's announcement was probably a shock to some at the company, it shouldn't have been. For the past few years, Circuit City has been the victim of one of the steepest declines this industry has ever seen.

Right now, the stock is in danger of being delisted from the New York Stock Exchange, thanks to a share price that can't make its way above the $1 mark. In fact, even after announcing the closure of 155 stores, the company's shares rose only 10 cents in daytime trading, bringing its stock price to 36 cents per share.

We can't forget, upon analyzing Circuit City, that this isn't the end of store closures, nor the beginning of financial success. The company is now going to engage landlords in negotiations to "aggressively" reduce rental rates in stores nationwide.

Once that initiative fails--and it will--Circuit City will have no other option but to close even more stores as it tries to find the right balance between size and financial stability.

To make matters worse, it will be delisted from the NYSE. I simply don't see any way the stock price can gain almost 70 cents in a short amount of time to get regulators off the company's back. And once that happens, any influx of cash Circuit City was hoping for will be lost, and it will be forced to close even more stores.

The end is near for Circuit City. Its decision to close 155 stores was an opening salvo in the hopes that shareholders would take notice and believe the company had the ability to turn things around.

Unfortunately for Circuit City, the shareholders didn't fall for it.

The company may be an attractive target for at least one company in the industry. After all, CompUSA was picked up by TigerDirect, and now some CompUSA stores are open in Florida.

But then again, maybe Circuit City isn't as attractive to acquiring companies as it wants to believe.

Maybe companies realize that Circuit City is a dog and will never be able to compete with Best Buy in brick-and-mortar stores or Amazon.com online. Maybe they realize that with a stock that's in serious danger of being delisted, it has no hope of repairing shareholder confidence. And maybe they realize that Circuit City's days are numbered, regardless of the amount of cost cutting and expense slashing in which the company engages.

I've said it once, and I'll say it again: Circuit City is a dying company with no viability to, well, anyone. With Best Buy and online retailers squeezing it out of the market, I honestly don't believe that Circuit City will be around even a year from now. Strapped for cash, facing an avalanche of competition, and in desperate need of solid revenue, Circuit City looks like company that simply can't survive in today's hotly contested environment.

The game is over. And Circuit City lost.
_________________
__
'S'

[yank]

I got an e-mail a couple of months ago saying CC was going bankrupt and for anyone having their money cards to hurry up and use them. There were a few other companies mentioned too that surprised me. But this one stuck in my head because it's where I bought my computer last yr.

[Monkeynuts]

Damn shame, the whole company probably ain't far from going under either.

MN

[Spider]

::: DHL to lay off 9,500 workers :::



The shipping firm's job cuts include 300
at a distribution center in Riverside County.
By: Ronald D. White and Dan Weikel
November 11, 2008

Struggling shipper DHL said Monday that it would close its 300-employee West Coast hub in Riverside County as it pulls out of the U.S. domestic shipping business, eliminating 9,500 jobs nationwide and closing most of its DHL Express service centers.

Deutsche Post, the Bonn, Germany-based parent of DHL, blamed the move on heavy competition from United Parcel Service Inc. and FedEx Corp. as well as severe financial losses stemming from the weak U.S. economy. It follows 5,400 U.S. job cuts the company had made earlier this year and will leave DHL with 3,000 to 4,000 workers in its U.S. express business.

"We are facing a tough challenge in the U.S. with enormous losses," Deutsche Post Chairman Frank Appel said during a conference call with analysts. "The impact of them has been that we think we have to take even further massive actions."

As of Jan. 30, DHL will focus on its international shipping business,
which is "what we are the best at," Appel said.

Because of losses expected to amount to $1.5 billion for its U.S. operations this year, DHL plans to close 18 U.S. airport hubs and shut all but about 100 of its 412 U.S. service centers. The company projected that daily U.S. package volume would drop to about 100,000 from between 1.2 million and 1.5 million.

For the Inland Empire, which once viewed DHL's Southern California hub as an anchor that would help attract businesses and jobs, the news couldn't have come at a worse time.

The cuts include DHL's sophisticated distribution center at March Global Port, which sits on land that was formerly part of March Air Force Base.

Since 2005, DHL cargo planes have made four flights a day into March -- the only commercial flights into that airport. About 300 workers sort through packages and load them onto planes and trucks.

Now, those DHL employees will be added to the jobless ranks at a time
when the region is suffering from a 9.1% unemployment rate,
which is among the worst in the nation for large urban areas,
Inland Empire economist John Husing said.

"One of the principal reasons for that high unemployment rate has been the
collapse of the residential home construction industry," Husing said.

"The whole business of cargo distribution has really slowed down,
and when there is less of that, it really affects the express-shipping industry,"
Husing said.

Laid-off employees will also find it hard to find jobs at DHL's toughest competitors,
UPS and FedEx, analysts said.

"No one has ever seen anything this bad before," said Nathan Brochmann, an analyst who follows logistics, transportation and business services for William Blair & Co. in Chicago.

Continued
___________________
__
'S'

[/color]

[Cobra]

Darn, Obama has been elected little over a week and we have already lost 2 company's ;D
It really is a shame about CC, but Best Buy has a lot better service, before and especially after the sale. This I know from personal experience, now for DHL, it's hard to compete against UPS and Fed Ex.

[Spider]

AT&T lays off 12,000
By: Margaret Kane

AT&T joined the long list of companies laying off workers, announcing on Thursday that it would eliminate 12,000 jobs, or roughly 4 percent of its workforce.

The company cited economic pressures and a changing business mix as the reasons behind the cuts.

AT&T also said it plans to reduce its 2009 capital expenditures from 2008 levels. The company said it would issue more specific financial guidance in January, when it announces its fourth-quarter results.

It did say, however, that as a result of the layoffs, it would take a charge of approximately $600 million in the fourth quarter of 2008 to pay severance to affected employees.

The cuts will begin in December and continue throughout 2009, AT&T said in a release.

The company said it is continuing to add positions in wireless, video, and broadband units to meet customer demand.

_______________
__
'S'

[Spider]

Sony To Lay Off 8,000 Full-Timers,
And 8,000 Others
By: Margaret Kane

Sony plans to lay off 8,000 workers in its electronics business worldwide as part of a broader plan to trim expenses and tighten its focus in a difficult financial climate, the company said Tuesday.

The Japanese electronics and media giant, which currently has a full-time global workforce of 160,000, joins a long list of tech companies that have cut jobs and scaled back production.

The company will also eliminate a number of contract workers and temporary employees, which would total an additional 8,000 jobs, according to Reuters.

In addition to the job reductions, Sony plans to curtail or delay some of its investment plans. The company will also downsize or withdraw from unprofitable or noncore businesses. The cuts should account for a total annual cost savings of more than 100 billion yen ($1.08 billion) by the end of the fiscal year ending March 31, 2010.

The company is outsourcing a portion of its planned increase in manufacturing of complementary metal oxide semiconductor, or CMOS, image sensors for use in mobile phones. Additionally, it is postponing plans to invest in production expansion at its liquid crystal display, or LCD, television assembly plant in Slovakia.

Sony's goals are to reduce investment in the electronics business by about 30 percent in the coming fiscal year and to reduce the total number of manufacturing sites by about 10 percent, from the current total of 57.

___________
__
'S'

[/color]