Corporate & legal

Sun's largest investor ups stake, seeks active role

Sun Microsystems' largest shareholder, Southeastern Asset Management, has upped its stake and taken a more aggressive attitude toward its investment, indicating that it will take an active role in maximizing shareholder value through talks with management and third parties, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday.

Southeastern, an investment advisory service and self-described value investor in large-cap, mid-cap, and small-cap companies, increased its stake to 21.2 percent from its previous investment in September of 17.3 percent.

In noting the increased stake and change in its status as a passive investor to … Read more

SanDisk layoffs appear to be in the works

In the wake of a big loss posted this week by SanDisk, layoffs appear to be in the offing.

On Monday, SanDisk said in prepared remarks that as part of its efforts to reduce operating expenses, "actions will be implemented in the current quarter" and will include "canceling or exiting a number of products and marketing activities, and will result in employee reduction in R&D, Sales & Marketing, G&A, and Operations."

And on Monday during SanDisk's third-quarter earnings conference call, CFO Judy Bruner spoke about more restructuring to come. In response … Read more

iPhone sales buoy AT&T earnings

AT&T's profits were up slightly in the third quarter, thanks in large part to the popularity of the Apple iPhone 3G.

The nation's largest phone company announced on Wednesday a 5.5 percent boost in profits for the third quarter. Net income for the company increased to $3.2 billion on sales of $31.2 billion, which were up about 4 percent, compared to the same quarter a year ago.

Wireless, which accounts for about 40 percent of AT&T's total revenue, once again saved the day for AT&T, proving that it … Read more

Will record labels control digital-music lockers?

A fitting anthem for Michael Robertson these days would be The Rolling Stones' hit, Get Off of My Cloud.

For nearly a decade, Robertson, the often controversial cofounder of MP3.com and Linspire, has toiled to store music in the cloud, the term used to describe the seemingly limitless amount of data and services accessible with a Web browser. But in the past, Robertson's efforts have led him into epic legal battles with the music industry. That's where he finds himself once again. In November, EMI filed a copyright suit against him and his music service, MP3tunes.com. … Read more

Yahoo earnings: It could be worse

Response among in tech journalists to Yahoo's layoff announcement and profit drop runs the gamut. But on one thing they agree: it could have been worse.

Here's Stephen Shankland's analysis following the call. And here's what some others are saying in the debrief:

Weaker results? Check. Guidance going forward weaker still? Check. Layoffs? Check. Economy sucks? Double check! Nonetheless, Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang said he "remained optimistic" about Yahoo and was going to "get fit" and power through its obvious troubles. Get this guy over the to McCain campaign pronto! Yahoo's … Read more

Yahoo bets on a glass half full

Yahoo Chief Executive Jerry Yang had some bold words to say while announcing the company's third-quarter financial results. The only problem is that they might have been a different set of words than disgruntled investors were expecting.

Though Yahoo announced a 10 percent layoff that will affect at least 1,430 employees, Yang and President Sue Decker also talked in optimistic terms about how the company is working to achieve a strong position when the advertising market recovers from the current economic troubles. It's smart to plan for the long-term, but right now, investors are fixated on Yahoo'… Read more

Yang's e-mail on Yahoo restructuring

Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang tells Yahoo employees in an e-mail that the company has "been through a tremendously challenging year." This is the full text of his e-mail:

From: Jerry Yang [mailto:jerry@yahoo-inc.com] Sent: Tuesday, October 21, 2008 2:20 PM To: all-worldwide@yahoo-inc.com Subject: update

yahoos,

i feel it's important for me to reach out to you after our earnings announcement, and before our all hands meeting tomorrow.

we as a company have been through a tremendously challenging year; and managing the increasingly turbulent global advertising climate has been an important focus for … Read more

American Airlines sues Yahoo over trademarked search ads

American Airlines has filed a trademark infringement lawsuit against Yahoo claiming it is diverting business to the airline's competitors by allowing them to purchase ads that appear next to American Airlines-related search results.

The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Forth Worth, Texas, late last week, is similar to one that American Airlines filed against Google last year and then settled earlier this year.

The airline contends that allowing other companies to purchase ads that are displayed when someone searches on an American Airlines-trademarked term confuses the public and directs potential American Airlines customers to other companies.

Yahoo spokeswoman … Read more

Sun shares plummet; broader markets falter

Sun Microsystems shares plunged a whopping 17.5 percent on Tuesday, after the company warned that its first-quarter results would fall short of expectations.

Sun closed at $4.77 a share, down $1.01, marking the third time this month that its shares have ended the trading session below $5 a share.

But Sun wasn't the only tech stock bleeding red, as evidenced by the declines in the broader markets.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 9,033.66, down 231.77 points, or 2.5 percent. And the tech-heavy Nasdaq ended the day at 1,696.68, … Read more