Free Republic

The biggest scandal in today's release of Hewlett Packard Q1 earnings was not that, just as the Nasdaq is knocking on 5000's door, it reported revenues of $26.8 billion missing consensus expectations of $27.3 billion, while beating non-GAAP EPS by 1 cent to $0.92 (up from $0.90 a year ago) entirely due to a massive reduction in outstanding stock and some truly gargantuan non-GAAP addbacks (GAAP EPS declined from $0.74 a year ago to $0.73) pushing the stock down 7% after hours. The biggest scandal was the company announced that having cut 44,000 workers so far, it will cut...

GRAND RAPIDS, MI -- Family Christian Stores, the nation's largest Christian bookstore and gift chain, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in hopes of restructuring its debt in the face of declining sales. The Grand Rapids-based chain said it does not expect to close any of its 266 stores in 36 states or layoff any of its 3,100 full-time and part-time employees. "We strive to serve God in all that we do and trust his guidance in all our decisions, especially this very important one," said President and CEO Chuck Bengochea in a news release. "We have carefully and prayerfully...

For years, RadioShack — the retailer that helped bring personal computers to the masses — outlasted untold predictions that it would buckle in the face of bigger rivals and online competitors. But its clock has finally run out. RadioShack, a long-ailing 94-year-old electronics chain, filed for bankruptcy protection on Thursday after striking a deal to sell up to 2,400 of its stores to the wireless service provider Sprint and a hedge fund that is its biggest shareholder. The Chapter 11 filing, made in federal bankruptcy court in Delaware, took few unaware. RadioShack had not turned a profit since 2011, and...

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. – Notices have gone out to more than 1,700 Izod Center workers that they'll lose their jobs by the end of March because the arena is closing. Almost all of the employees are part-time. The Record (http://bit.ly/1zPZgk1 ) reports the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority says the layoffs include 618 stagehands, 263 security guards, 169 admissions workers, 116 trades workers, 66 box office employees, and 50 parking attendants....

Weatherford International plans to cut 5,000 jobs, or about 9 percent of its workforce, by the end of the first quarter as the oil services company tries to save costs amid sinking oil prices and budget cuts. The job cuts will focus on both operating and support positions and a majority of the reductions will be in the Western Hemisphere, the company said in a statement. Weatherford, which currently employs about 56,000 people across the world, expects the job cuts to result in annualized savings of over $350 million. "Due to the quickly changing market conditions, we are aligning and...

Anti-union forces claim UAW ‘stuffed’ ballot box. Workers in Alabama are staging a fourth attempt to kick the United Auto Workers (UAW) out of their plant following claims that stuffed ballot boxes derailed their last vote. Employees at the NTN-Bower Corporation, a ball bearings manufacturer, have unsuccessfully tried to boot the labor giant out of their factory for two years. Workers voted to decertify the UAW in an earlier election, but an Obama-appointed National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) panel threw out the election. Another election was held in January of this year. The UAW prevailed, but it was later revealed...

In a move expected to accelerate the shutdown of office-supply stores across the U.S., Staples Inc. has agreed to pay stock worth $6.3 billion to acquire rival Office Depot, which last year absorbed the former Office Max chain. The price works out to $11 per Office Depot share, up from $7.60 on Monday (Office Depot shares started rising Tuesday as deal rumors were reported in the financial news). "Financially this transaction makes sense and is necessary to the longterm health of these two companies," retail analyst David Strasser told investors for Janney Capital Markets in a report today. Both Staples,...

Tulsa-based drilling rig maker and operator Helmerich & Payne Inc. expects to lay off 2,000 employees companywide, it announced Thursday during a conference call. The cuts, which are already beginning, are spurred by a reduction in rig use due to falling crude oil prices, CEO John Lindsay said during the earning call with analysts. Helmerich & Payne employs about 500 in Tulsa and nearly 12,000 companywide. The overall reduction is about 17 percent of the company’s total workforce. “This is without question the worst part of the downturn,” Lindsay said. Lindsay revealed the layoffs shortly after a company earnings report...

HOUSTON — ConocoPhillips has told its employees layoffs could be on the way, as the independent producer looks to reign in spending amid lower crude prices. The layoffs and an accompanying pay freeze will supplement cost-control steps the Houston company has already taken, such as slashing its exploration and production budget, Daren Beaudo, a spokesman for ConocoPhillips, said in an emailed statement. The company did not detail how many workers would be let go or when the job cuts could take place. “As with our capital program we will be deferring, delaying or eliminating controllable costs where we can,” he...

The VAR Guy reported last week that IBM's massive layoffs would begin this week — and this seems to be the case. Word surfaced last weekend that IBM is prepping to layoff up to 26 percent of its global workforce, or some 100,000 workers.Many of these layoffs come on the heels of Lance Crosby's resignation. Crosby, the founder of SoftLayer, a company IBM acquired for around $2 billion in July 2013, said in a statement that he was taking some time off before pursuing his "next challenge."Here's what you need to know about IBM's most recent round of layoffs....

Research Triangle Park, N.C. — A "resource action," or layoffs, are underway at IBM (NYSE: IBM) under the name "Project Chrome," workers are telling the Alliance@IBM Union. "Bloodbath today," wrote an IBMer in Columbia, Mo. "Me? Yes, RA'd." “At a time when IBM is aggressively transforming, the company continues to rebalance its workforce to meet the changing requirements of its clients and to lead in new, high value segments of the IT industry, including cloud, analytics, mobile, security, social and cognitive computing. This is not new news," IBM said in a statement. "IBM announced a $600 million workforce rebalancing charge...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits tumbled last week to its lowest level in nearly 15 years, adding to bullish signals on the labor market. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits dropped 43,000 to a seasonally adjusted 265,000 for the week ended Jan. 24, the lowest since April 2000, the Labor Department said on Thursday. It was the biggest weekly decline since November 2012. The drop, which far exceeded economists' expectations for a fall to only 300,000, probably exaggerates the strength of the jobs market as the data included the Martin Luther King...

Foxconn, a supplier for Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), has announced that it’s cutting its workforce. The exact number of employees that will be affected by the Foxconn layoffs hasn’t been announced. The company also hasn’t said when the layoffs will go into effect. The job cuts come as the company faces higher wages in China and less revenue growth, reports Reuters. The Foxconn layoffs are also likely affected by the company’s desire to replace workers with robots. The use of robotic arms in some parts of the company’s work will allow the company to replace workers that were performing simple tasks, Reuters...

IBM denies the rumor about the layoffs of more than 100,000 IBM employees. The company says that only “several thousand” IBM employees will be affected by the layoffs. In an email statement from IBM to Reuters, IBM officially denied the rumor concerning as many as 112,000 employees. According to the Jan. 26 Reuters report, “IBM is in the process of layoffs, as disclosed in its latest earnings report last week, but it will affect ‘several thousand’ employees only.” The layoffs of as many as 112,000 of the company’s employees would affect 26 percent of its global workforce. Robert Cringely, a...

Biggest corporate lay-off in history is expected within days, with IBM believed to be scrapping 110,000 of its 430,000 workforce around the world IBM is preparing to scrap 110,000 of its global 430,000 workforce in the biggest corporate cull in the computer giant's history, a report has revealed. The company will make the job cuts this week under a plan known internally as 'project chrome', according to US technology blogger Robert Cringely on Forbes website. IBM is in the process of layoffs, as disclosed in its latest earnings report last week but said the number of job losses was significantly...

Deere & Co , the world's largest maker of farm equipment, will lay off more than 900 employees at plants in Iowa and Illinois in the latest round of job cuts spurred by a decline in grain prices that is hurting demand for agricultural machinery. The layoffs, which represent about 3 percent of Deere's workforce in the United States and Canada, are set to begin early next month, the company said in a statement. The cuts at facilities that build agricultural equipment reflect Deere's attempt "to align the size of its manufacturing workforce to market demand for products," according to...

“Since 2010, America has put more people back to work than Europe, Japan, and all advanced economies combined,” President Obama said during his State of the Union Address on Tuesday. “Our manufacturers have added almost 800,000 new jobs. Some of our bedrock sectors, like our auto industry, are booming. But there are also millions of Americans who work in jobs that didn’t even exist 10 or 20 years ago — jobs at companies like Google, and eBay, and Tesla.” While Politico pointed out that most of the companies Obama touted are big, left-leaning D.C. spenders, his choice of mentioning eBay...

The number of people who filed for unemployment assistance in the U.S. last week fell less than expected, dampening optimism over the strength of the labor market, official data showed on Thursday. In a report, the U.S. Department of Labor said the number of individuals filing for initial jobless benefits in the week ending January 17 decreased by 10,000 to a seasonally adjusted 307,000 from the previous week’s total of 317,000. Analysts had expected initial jobless claims to decline by 17,000 to 300,000 last week. Continuing jobless claims in the week ended January 10 rose to 2.443 million from 2.428...

Big layoffs are coming to eBay. The company is planning to slash 2,400 workers across the eBay and PayPal parts of the business. The cuts will impact 7% of the workforce. The layoffs will be made before the end of March. EBay said it was "simplifying organizational structures" in its quarterly earnings released Wednesday. A company spokesperson told CNNMoney that some of the cuts were to unfilled positions, but would not say how many.

Falling gasoline prices may be great for consumers, but they’re tough on energy firms and their workers. The latest layoffs announcement comes from the oilfield services firm Baker Hughes, which plans to cut 7,000 employees — 11 percent of its workforce. Global oil prices have plunged 60 percent since last June, making some drilling operations unprofitable. “While market demand ended up being more resilient in the fourth quarter than many had predicted, the recent declines seen in rig counts will clearly affect results in 2015,” said company CEO Martin Craighead. Speaking to analysts about the layoffs, he said, “This is...