circuits

'Overpaid' Circuit City CEO joins 'overpaid' ex-employees on bread line

After leading Circuit City to the brink, credit Philip J. Schoonover with finally making a good decision by resigning from the company. Well, that's the polite version of today's late afternoon executive shuffle at the consumer electronics retailer. More likely, Schoonover's disastrous stewardship finally pushed a do-nothing board to replace him with James A. Marcum.

As was pointed out to me by a colleague, karma definitely had a hand. In 2007, Schoonover orchestrated the dismissal of 3,400 employees because they were making too much money, replacing them with less experienced workers willing to take less pay. … Read more

TI launches Kilby Labs, marks 50 years of integrated circuits

Texas Instruments commemorated the 50th anniversary of the integrated circuit with the opening Friday of Kilby Labs, honoring Jack Kilby, the Nobel-prize-winning inventor of the seminal electronic device.

As a new TI employee in 1958, Kilby was forced to work during the traditional company summer vacation. During that time, he built the first integrated circuit, now the basic building block of everything from 3G cell phones to supercomputers.

The first IC was crude: a sliver of germanium with protruding wires glued to a glass slide (see image below). When Kilby applied electricity to the circuit, "an unending sine wave … Read more

Circuit City: What, me no laugh at parody?

MAD Magazine is getting the last laugh now that Circuit City has issued a mea culpa for telling employees to destroy issues of MAD that contain a parody of the retailer's advertising.

The Consumerist pointed us to a copy of a letter of it received from a Circuit City corporate communicator after the site wrote about the alleged search-and-destroy mission. In the letter, Circuit City apologizes for its "knee-jerk reaction," and says its has issued a retraction order and directed affected stores to put the magazines back on sale.

The magazine's August issue contains a (pretty darn amusing) four-page "Sucker City" circular with announcements like: "Believe it or not, $3,599.99 is the sale price," and "Wii Gaming System Guaranteed In Stock...if you're friends with an employee who hid it in the back for you. Otherwise, oh, sorry, all sold out." Sucker City also sells products including a self-editing Web cam that "stops embarrassing YouTube videos before they're made."

The good news is that at least one member of Circuit City's PR team appears to appreciate the value of a good ribbing--or at least appreciate the value of pretending to have a sense of humor. This is the letter: … Read more

Gadgettes 100: The 100th Episode!

One hundred action packed episodes of Gadgettes! We recap the history of our segments in this week's episode. And who's that special guest knocking at the door? Listen and find out! Listen now: Download today's podcast EPISODE 100

PinkWatch Sanyo Xacti DMX-HD800 camcorder offers palm-size HD shooting for $468 http://dvice.com/archives/2008/07/sanyo_xacti_dmx.php

Samsung thinks patronizing women will get us into tech; Engadget agrees http://www.popgadget.net/2008/07/samsung_thinks.php

Hot Asian Gadget Audio slave: Gadget nut turns Pikachu into a ‘musical’ instrument http://dvice.com/archives/2008/07/audio_slave_gad.php … Read more

Sony's Stan Glasgow talks TVs, Blu-ray

After navigating some rough seas, Sony's Electronics division has been starting to right the ship.

Over the past year, the company has been forced to rethink its product lineup and catch up to competitors in some cases, but now the Japanese electronics giant's U.S. division is looking ahead and betting big on the future of flat-panel televisions and high-definition media.

CNET News.com sat down with the head of Sony Electronics' U.S. operation, Stan Glasgow, to talk OLED (organic light-emitting diodes) TVs, Blu-ray Disc, the importance of the PlayStation 3, consumer electronics, and the dwindling margins … Read more

Buzz Out Loud 758: Return of the living MicroHoo

The rotten corpse of the Microsoft-Yahoo merger has apparently reanimated itself and is wandering down Wall Street, munching on the brains of News Corp. and Time Warner, recruiting them to its unholy cause. Sigh. In other news, Microsoft has a new Office subscription service, Blockbuster decided Circuit City just isn't worth it, and we debunk the Texas PC repair hysteria that's sweeping the blogosphere. Listen now: Download today's podcast

EPISODE 758

Microsoft seeks partners for new run at Yahoo http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121496732802022117.html http://news.cnet.com/8301-10784_3-9982741-7.html

Office subscription service ready to … Read more

What's next for Blockbuster and Circuit City?

In a not-so-stunning announcement last night, Blockbuster announced that it has withdrawn its bid for Circuit City due to concerns over the viability of the big box retailer.

"Based on market conditions and the completion of our initial due diligence process, we have determined that it is not in the best interest of Blockbuster's shareholders to proceed with an acquisition of Circuit City," said Jim Keyes, Blockbuster Chairman and CEO. "We continue to believe in the strategic merits of a consumer retail proposition that would bring media content and electronic devices together under one brand. We will pursue this strategy through our Blockbuster stores as a way to diversify the business and better serve the entertainment retail segment."

Ever since this deal was announced, I've said it would never happen and was one of the few that said it wasn't worth the trouble. First off, Blockbuster didn't even have the funds to acquire Circuit City, and secondly, I simply didn't understand why a company with its own financial woes would want to be involved with another facing extreme pressure.

Evidently the shareholders agreed with my evaluation. Even though Blockbuster offered $6 per share -- a 54 percent premium -- Circuit City stock hasn't seen $6 since December of last year. In other words, no one was excited about this deal and they quickly realized that Blockbuster was bidding far too much for a company that's worth far too little.

But what happens next for these companies? Will Blockbuster try something new? Will Circuit City be swallowed up by a different company?

Here's what I think:… Read more

Blockbuster abandons Circuit City bid

Movie-rental chain Blockbuster announced Tuesday that it has withdrawn its $1 billion bid for consumer electronics chain Circuit City.

Chief Executive James Keyes blamed "market conditions" for the demise of the proposed deal, valued at one time at more than $1.3 billion.

"Based on market conditions and the completion of our initial due diligence process, we have determined that it is not in the best interest of Blockbuster's shareholders to proceed with an acquisition of Circuit City," Keyes said in a statement. "We continue to believe in the strategic merits of a consumer … Read more

Let go of my texts--all 75,000 of them! The 9th Circuit speaks

Being an attorney with an iPhone, I've wondered about the privacy of my SMS-text messages and whether they can be withheld from prying eyes. I don't mean that dinner date across from you, but in a larger sense. Think about what we've all begun to say via text messages: Carrie Underwood got dumped this way and Detroit's mayor was brought down by his text messages, for example. Like it or not, texting has become a communication medium that is here to stay, meaning that the contents of those messages are also susceptible to legal discovery, i.… Read more