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In another sign of the slowing economy, one that has been even harder for second- and third-tier PC makers than for the top-tier ones, His Hirsuteness has learned that Acer America is putting its Silicon Valley campus up for sale. A spokeswoman for the San Jose stalwart said the company will possibly rent space for its future operations. In addition,
Acer confirmed that the company will be closing a warehouse in El Paso, Texas.
Coinciding with the shutdowns, Acer also quietly proceeded with another round of layoffs May 1 that affected its IT departments in Temple, Texas, and San Jose.
A little bird tells El Gato that technology services provider EDS training group, EDS University, has had to cancel project management classes for June. EDS University has apparently gone through its expense budget and is “not allowed to incur expenses in June.”
The Tabby tattler claims the internal billing process was messed up when training approval was recently shifted to upper corporate management. Classes are expected to be rescheduled for July and August.
“Looks like the Bush administrations school voucher program could be applied to the tech industry, too,” cackled the Kitty.
It seems Network Associates may be done with its CyberCop Monitor intrusion detection product. The company reportedly is not dropping the product outright but is putting it in “maintenance mode.” That translates to continued support but no further development, according to a friend of the Furball.
AT&T has come under fire on various anti-spam Internet newsgroups. The groups are concerned that AT&T may have what it terms a “pink contract” with a company named MonsterHut, which has affiliations with an alleged spammer called BeaverHome.
It wouldnt be the first time the company engaged in something like this. Last November, AT&T admitted it had provided a pink contract to a spamming company called Nevada Hosting. At the time, AT&T said the error was attributable to an innocent mistake by a junior-level sales rep.
On the Redmond front, as the global release date for Office XP rapidly approaches, Microsoft will officially announce the software this week in New York. Though Gates himself will present the launch speech, the events being held across the country are what the Kitty found most interesting. The invitations for Office XP media launches in Michigan and Ohio state that the events will be presented in the following language: “English-American.”
“I can do American,” laughed the linguistic Lynx, “but I never quite got a handle on that English jazz. Kinda like Esperanto, isnt it?”
And speaking of the Big Apple, Ericsson held its Ericsson Strategy & Technology Summit there last week. Though it was no circus, there was talk of horses and zebras. According to Ericsson President and CEO Kurt Hellstrom, the companys U.S. president, Per-Arne Sandstrom, could not attend because he had broken his arm. Apparently, the two were riding with some clients when a zebra—yes, a zebra—spooked their posse.
“Mmm, its usually elephants that spook me,” mused the mouser, “little pink ones, mostly.”