• Electric Scooter manufacturer, Vectrix, is officially bankrupt.  They’ve just recently filed for Chapter 11 protection.
• The company plans to stay in business and will auction their assets of right over $5 million on or around Oct. 29th this year.

• Portland Oregon based Iberdrola Renewables has a lot to be happy about right now.
• They’ve applied for eight grants going towards renewable energy projects with a total of 980MW and $1.8 billion in investment.  They’ve received grants on all eight applications!
• Just last week, they received three grants from the US Treasury Department in total of right around $251 million.
• To date, they’ve received a total of almost $550 million in stimulus grants.
• Iberdrola currently has wind farms under construction in Texas, Arizona, Oregon, Illinois, and North Dakota.
• To put it into perspective for you guys, construction of 980MW worth of wind projects will support in between 11,800 and 14,000 jobs in one year.  That’s great!  Keep up the good work Iberdorla, companies like yours are driving us into a cleaner future.

• Now that the Cash for Clunkers program has drawn to a close, some interesting numbers are starting to come back.  Here are the top ten cars that were bought/clunked.

Most Popular Cars Bought

1. Toyota Corolla
2. Honda Civic
3. Ford Focus
4. Toyota Camry
5. Hyundai Elantra
6. Toyota Prius
7. Nissan Versa
8. Ford Escape FWD
9. Honda Fit
10. Honda CR-V AWD

Most Popular Clunkers

1. Ford Explorer 4WD
2. Ford F150 Pickup 2WD
3. Jeep Grand Cherokee 4WD
4. Jeep Cherokee 4WD
5. Ford Explorer 2WD
6. Dodge Caravan/Grand Caravan
7. Chevrolet Blazer 4WD
8. Ford F-150 Pickup 4WD
9. Chevrolet C1500 Pickup 2WD
10. Ford Windstar

• Is it just me, or does there seem to be a consistency here with the nationality of cars bought/clunked?  Hey US auto, get it together, eh?

• Obama’s Cash For Clunker program, which allows consumers to turn in cars that receive 18mpg or less for a $4500 rebate towards a new, more fuel efficient vehicle, burned through its original $1 Billion cash infusion faster than a drunk in Vegas.
• No worries to all you low-mpg drivers though, the Senate just approved a $2 billion extension to keep the program going.
• So far, an impressive 220,000 vehicles have been turned in, amounting to right around $923 millions in rebates.

• Maybe to Apple, the recession hasn’t quite come yet. Their earnings on Wednesday, impeccable, and now they have cut 1,600 retail employees in a cost cutting effort. The retail arm of the company now employs 14,000 full-time equivalent workers, down from 15,600 according to a  recent filing with the SEC.
  

Expansion of the Retail segment has required and will continue to require a substantial investment in fixed assets and related infrastructure, operating lease commitments, personnel, and other operating expenses. Capital asset purchases associated with the Retail segment since its inception totaled $1.5 billion through the end of the second quarter of 2009. As of March 28, 2009, the Retail segment had approximately 14,000 full-time equivalent employees and had outstanding lease commitments associated with retail space of $1.3 billion. The Company would incur substantial costs if it were to close multiple retail stores and such costs could adversely affect the Company’s financial condition and operating results. -Apple SEC Filing

Looking For A Job Or Need To Hire? Join The Thousands On TinyComb’s Job Board

• In the wake of GM asking for more money from our government, (no big deal, just $2.6 billion more) I had to post this chart displaying why GM didn’t deserve any of the help they’ve received thus far, and certainly doesn’t deserve more.  If this graph isn’t proof enough that GM sucks, I don’t know what is.
• The above chart via PatentCafe for their “Automaker Patent Assets Intelligence Report” represents GM’s patent portfolio as compared to the entire industry average.  As you can see, GM has devoted minimal effort towards Green Tech patent development.
• Although the data used was from 2007, PatentCafe still says, “The data suggests that General Motors is diverting resources away from core technologies toward development of telecommunications, lowering its Green Tech priority even further. Toyota, on the other hand, continued its Green Tech commitment with 158 applications compared to General Motors’ 20.”
• The report was submitted as part of Obama’s Presidential Auto Task Force and assisted in the decision to recommend that former CEO, Rick Wagoner, step down from his position.
• Just for comparison sake, 29.1% of Toyota’s portfolio represents Green Tech, 26.3% for Ford, and 22.8% for VW, while GM is at 15.1%.
• We’ve gone on far too long rewarding American companies for mediocrity.  I personally can’t wait to see GM go down.  They’ve been anti-progressive for too long and are way too caught up in the corporate america/oil lobby they’ve answered to for decades.  It’s too late for forgiveness.  GM….You’re fired.

Want to keep up on green tech in the automotive industry? Check out these recent tinyComb posts:

Apple Developing Safer In-Car Touchscreen System

Premature Leakage: The Tesla Model S

Fisker Automotive Airs It’s First TV Commercial

Cleantech Automotive: Volume 2: Pre-Geneva Motor Show

• With the end of Q1 2009 almost here, trying to cut costs at the last minute to impress investors is becoming a quick trend. We just heard about Google layoffs, now 5,000 people from IBM are losing their jobs in the U.S.  Amazon cut 210 people at three distribution centers in Nevada, Indiana, and Pennsylvania. The New York Times also announced a 5 percent cut(1oo people) of its business operations. This is not a good sign of what is to come out of Q1 earnings. Companies are clearly trying to look more lean as they woo  investors on staying with them through tough times.

• Research outfit Gartner today warned that PC sales will suffer the “sharpest unit decline in history” this year. Gartner expects the PC industry to ship just 257 million units this year. That’s an 11.9 percent decline from 2008, one that easily eclipses the previous worst decline in 2001, when shipments fell 3.2 percent. Gartner believes desktop shipments will decline a staggering 31.9 percent from 2008. Even an expected 80 percent spike in netbook sales, the lone bright spot in the market, won’t do much to temper that. Bad news for PC manufacturers like Dell (DELL) and HP (HPQ), and for suppliers like Microsoft (MSFT), Intel (INTC) and AMD (AMD) as well. Digg this up for the image please : )

“The PC industry is facing extraordinary conditions as the global economy continues to weaken, users stretch PC lifetimes and PC suppliers grow increasingly cautious,” said Gartner research director George Shiffler. “Slower GDP growth will generally weaken demand and slow new penetration, lengthening PC lifetimes will reduce replacements, and supplier caution will keep inventories at historic lows.”

• Here is the letter Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) CEO Mark Hurd released explaining the company’s bleak outlook for the rest of the year (AllThingsD). Things are so tough, Hurd will even be cutting his own pay by 20 percent, executives’ pay by 10 percent to 15 percent, and most employees’ salaries by five percent.

Hurd’s letter in full:

Today, HP announced first quarter results amid one of most difficult economic downturns that any of us has ever faced. I am proud to say that we continue to execute well in this very challenging environment.
We grew revenue 1 percent year-over-year, or 4 percent in local currency, and you need to look at these numbers a little differently this quarter. For the first time in a long time, the dollar was strengthening, so the currency conversion was actually a headwind for us. We also continued to show strong operating leverage with non-GAAP operating profit up 10 percent year-over-year. This was a solid performance, and I thank all of you for your efforts.

But really, Q1 was like a tale of two companies.

HP Services — as a result of EDS and TS — had a strong quarter, delivering virtually all of the local currency revenue growth and more operating profit than any other business. It’s gratifying, because this performance was possible because of the hard work we’ve been doing to restructure those businesses.

When you take HP services out of the mix, it’s a very different picture. PSG had revenue down 19%. ESS had revenue down 18%. IPG had revenue down 19%. In fairness, across IT and even other industries, product businesses are struggling in this economic climate. And we did gain share in key market segments. PSG and ESS gained roughly 1 and 3 points of share, respectively. In IPG, quite frankly, we still have work to do across a number of dimensions like inventory, both owned and channel inventory.

In an environment like this, there’s no margin for error and no tolerance for inaction. To give you a little insight into my world, after we report our earnings, we engage in a dialogue with analysts and investors. They’re going to ask what we’re doing in light of the current environment to right-size these businesses.

The math is pretty straight forward. From a productivity standpoint, you’re supposed to reduce headcount on par with declining revenue. If you believe the environment isn’t going to improve, you should take a bigger cut to get in front of the problems. You can do the calculation, as easy as I can. We have about 100,000 people in our product businesses, with revenue down roughly 20%, and an environment that may not get any better in 2009.

I’ll be asked by investors, “Where’s the job action, where are you taking out this roughly, 20,000 positions?” Well, I don’t want to do that. When I look at HP, I don’t see a structural problem of that magnitude. There are pockets where restructuring needs to happen, and areas where actions will be taken as part of our ongoing workforce optimization process. But at a company-wide level, I don’t believe a major workforce reduction is the best thing for HP at this time.

I think we are fundamentally sound, and when the economy picks up, I want HP to be strong, and to take share and to outgrow the market. I said it last quarter, my goal is to keep the muscle of this organization intact. But we do have to do something…because the numbers just don’t add up and we need to have the flexibility to make the right long-term investments for HP.

So we are going to take action. We have decided to further variablize our cost structure by reducing base pay and some benefits across HP. My base pay will be reduced by 20 percent. The base pay of Executive Council members will be reduced by 15 percent. The base pay of other executives will be reduced by 10 percent. The base pay of all other exempt employees will be reduced by 5 percent. For non-exempt employees, base pay will be reduced by two-and-a-half percent. Additional efficiencies, including changes to the US 401(K) plan and the share ownership plan, will also be implemented. Of course, the implementation of all of these actions is subject to compliance with local laws and regulations. Follow-up communications will detail the timing and the plans in your location.

This does not change our pay-for-performance strategy at HP. If we outperform, and there is a chance we will, then we will increase the total amount of variable pay. In fact, the financial flexibility we’re gaining helps put us in a better position to compete and to win in the marketplace, and fund the bonus program this year based on pre-adjusted salaries. If the company performs well, if our individual businesses perform well and if you perform well, then you could potentially make up the difference with your bonus. I can’t promise you anything, but I tell you…there is a chance…if we get this right.

To be clear, these actions don’t make up for all of the decline in revenues. We’re also benefiting from the tough actions we’ve taken over the last few years. People always asked, “Why are we so focused on getting costs out in good times?” Now…is why that work was so important. We’ve been able to bank some of those savings, and we’re making a withdrawal, which along with the actions we’re taking today, I hope, will get us through this recession.

Again, there are no guarantees. If the environment gets worse, if the downturn lasts longer than we’re assuming, if our performance declines, we’ll have to reassess. But for now I believe this is the right thing for the strength of HP.

I know this is a tough time. But if we get this right, HP can be the kind of company that not only has led, but will extend its leadership. We can emerge from this recession in a powerful position to create value for our customers, our shareholders and our people for years to come.

Thank you.

Mark

Try reading these other industry related posts:

The State Of Venture Capital With Shopzilla/BizRate Founder

Letter From Carol Bartz To Yahoo Employees

Microsoft Earnings And Future Looking Grim

2009 Predictions For The Tech Sector

• In a depressing earnings call today with the NewsCorp team, Rupert Murdoch outlined the $6.4 billion loss. Murdoch said “the downturn is more severe and likely longer lasting than previously thought.” and “We are implementing rigorous cost-cutting across all operations and reducing head count where appropriate.”
• MySpace earnings fall underneath the Fox Interactive Media section, which also includes products like PhotoBucket. MySpace is thought to bring in the majority of the revenues coming in from FIM. Here is what they had to say on the issue: “Fox Interactive revenues: $226 million revenues. Down due to reduced subs at IGN. Search and advertising were simliar to a year ago. Costs were MySpace Music and international expansion”. The entire division lost $38million.
• I guess Murdoch and Sam Zell (purchased Tribune) were wrong to assume paper media is going to stay strong through the next 5 years. Cuts have already been made across the board, and there is no end in sight to how bad it will get.

Other must read NewsCorp/MySpace Articles:

LEAK: MySpace’s Recession Plan Is To Outsource

Michael Wolff: MySpace Users Are Doomed, Poor

MySpace MyAds Producing 160K A Day

• More firings at Google this week. Keep an eye out for downsizing in the Ad sales force as next quarter earnings round the corner. Here’s what Google had to say today…

As we made clear during our last quarterly earnings call in October, Google is still hiring but at a reduced rate. Given the state of the economy, we recognized that we needed fewer people focused on hiring.

Our first step to address this was to wind down almost all our contracts with external contractors and vendors providing recruiting services for Google. However, after much consideration, we have with great regret decided that we need to go further and reduce the overall size of our recruiting organization by approximately 100 positions.

We know this change will be very difficult for the people concerned, and we hope that many of them will be able to find new roles at Google. They helped build this company, new hire by new hire, and we are enormously grateful for everything they have done.

• The videogames industry is not recession proof. In addition to last month, Electronic Arts announces more layoffs today along with details of closing studios due to weak sales. The layoffs will now total 10.0% of EA’s global workforce, eliminating 1,000 jobs. In addition, 9 total studios will be closed. the reductions will save the company $120 million annually once the plan goes into motion.  News of the housesweeping bumped the stock up 4.3%, or 72 cents, to $17.48 this morning. 
• The restructuring will not officially be completed until March 31st, thus EA will definitely miss their year end revenue estimates of $5.3 billion. Current analysts are calling EA to pull in around $4.7 billion. 
• This is a smart move for EA. The company is still cash rich, with zero debt. Restructuring will keep them in a stronger position to beat earnings next year once everything is said and done. Don’t count out EA, they are in it for the long haul. 

• Hot off the Le Web Conference in Paris, where European entrepreneurs, start-ups and industry kings strut their stuff, news from the French eBay team led some to believe it’s on the fritz.
• eBay France has seen it’s share of problems, from a lawsuit in 2007 which attempted to get the site shut down for operating illegally, to dismal traffic since its inception (eBay.com recieves 70M visitors a month compared to France’s 140K). Rumor has it (coming from employees), the site is going to close along with other European eBay counterparts that share similar product from the French euro flagship.
• We have already talked about the 10 Reasons Why eBay Died, however I didn’t expect the company to be digging out it’s own graves so soon. We will see how this plays out in the next few weeks. Certainly a weak holiday season won’t help eBay in changing their decision.

• When things were running fairly smooth in the financial markets for the last few years, clean energy technology was on everyone’s radar from world leaders all the way down to the average consumer. That widely spread optimism is now taking a back seat due to the financial crisis, which is not good in the face of a potential global catastrophe, not to mention billions of dollars in venture capital money pouring into clean tech companies. Venture investments in North America, Europe, China and India across 158 companies reached $2.6 billion in the third quarter of 2008, a record quarter for clean tech investments.
• The recent global summit on climate change in Poznan, Poland outlined the fears of green supporters surrounding the growing apathy for clean tech solutions while we fight through the tough financial crisis. Moreover, their survey shows less support from high level adopters for wind energy, solar power, biofuels, biomass and hydrogen energy as technologies with “high potential” to reduce carbon levels in the atmosphere over the next 25 years. It’s not just the adopters however, climate experts now have less faith of finding a ubiquitous solution for the masses that will reduce the carbon emissions to appropriate levels in time. The survey below shows the breakdown in the drop of what experts feel will make a difference over last year (this year in blue).

• The biggest drop in optimism was for first-generation biofuels from crops. Only 12 percent of respondents saw high potential there, down from 21 percent last year. This was an obvious one. Last week I broke down the math equation to why it’s physically impossible to use biofuels to come close to alleviating a major nation like the US off of standard oil. Energy conservation and more efficient technology wins everyone’s vote, but the problem is no one knows what technology that is yet.
• Electric cars are certainly not the end all solution to the problem. Even if everyone in the US drives an electric car (which won’t happen), that’s still only 33% of U.S carbon dioxide emissions. Not to mention electricity burns coal, which emits around 1.7 times as much carbon per unit of energy when burned as does natural gas. (also, there is no such thing as clean coal)
• Let’s talk about the political side of things holding up clean tech. The Kyoto Protocol is about to expire, and we are in desperate need of finding a new one that includes China and India as well as puts regulations on other developing nations (not to mention ourselves). Currently, the European Union is struggling to reach agreement on its own climate rules with conflicting arguments happening between  Eastern European (and Italy) and Western European governments. Especially in the financial crisis, the climate measures being proposed upset the developing nations due to high costs, which stunts growth. They also feel that the regulations are unfair considering that the Western countries producing the majority of the emissions like the US are the ones proposing regulations, yet have barely complied with green policies, ’saying actions at this point can be voluntary for citizens’. Such a joke.
• The next few years for cleantech could prove devastating for clean tech companies, venture capital firms and the polar ice caps as we try and agree upon a sound solution to how everyone will work together and with what technology. Obama should be picking out the best of the clean tech companies come the start of his term and make stiff regulations to mandate them throughout the country. This will inject the VC’s who backed the ideas with more money to go out and fund further projects and it will put us on our way to lower emissions. If we can’t inspire hope in the eyes of the experts and the scientists, then a layer of apathy across all green minds will surely lead to far greater problems for our ecosystem than sub-prime mortgage woes. All the experts want to see is some sort of adoption happening around the nations causing the large portions of emissions. Our current technologies may not be the best it will get, but its a start and things need to change in the face of an unhealthy environment.

(An overview of the survey, along with PowerPoint slides, is available here.)

Unconfirmed Reports Of Yahoo’s Severance Package For The Thousands Laid Off. (Via Silicon Alley Insider)

• Last day of work” is Dec. 10th
• Employees are considered “on the payroll” through Feb. 13th (accrue vacation, get benefits, etc. during that time).
• On Feb 13th, if employee hasn’t found a new job, Y! pays out a 2 month severance in lump sum form
• All employees must remain “on call” to answer “reasonable” requests between now and Feb. 13th
• Y! employees can’t disparage, etc. the company
• For people with line responsibilities, there appear to not have been any transition plans (at least in one example I know of). There’s going to be some confused clients/salespeople tomorrow morning when their e-mails aren’t getting returned.