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Toshiba outsourcing semiconductor production to rival Samsung
'Tis the season for manufacturing deals? Sure seems it. Merely hours after Sony announced its intentions to buy back Cell chip fabrication facilities from Toshiba, it looks as if Tosh is about to enter into yet another agreement. In this case, it'll be outsourcing the unprofitable production of semiconductors to rival Samsung, which will be responsible for churning out the brains behind a number of smartphones, televisions and digital home appliances. Numerous sources have explained that Toshiba is interested in realigning its focus onto the blossoming memory chip business, and moreover, its hoping to evade costly facility upgrades that would be necessary to remain competitive in the system LSI business. In other words, the company is dodging investment costs and placing a greater emphasis on a sector that's already profitable (NAND flash production, for those curious), and after the Oita plant is handed off, it'll be used to make image sensors in digital cameras. The Nagasaki plant, as we heard earlier, will be handed over to Sony. Toshiba's stocks were sent northward after investors welcomed the news, but of course it remains to be seen what kind of consumer impact this will have. Whatever the case, we certainly hope Toshiba never runs into any trouble with Sammy -- it's not like its top brass can be touched, regardless of infraction.
Sony outsourcing some image sensor production to Fujitsu
Whoa. Sony sure didn't mention anything about this at its Photokina press conference last week, but then again, it's not the most glamorous announcement to make. According to Reuters, Sony is aiming to "outsource some production of image sensors used in digital cameras and mobile phones to Fujitsu," and as you'd expect, it's being done in a bid to shave costs and "cope with tough global competition." According to a Sony spokesperson, the company has been mulling this decision for awhile, but it's unclear if this will have any further impact in Sony's employment numbers. It's also unclear why "some" sensor production will remain internal -- we're guessing that newfangled Translucent Mirror technology may have convinced the firm to keep the DSLR lines a bit closer to the chest. It's bruited that Sony will begin subcontracting output to Fujitsu later in the year, and it could shift even more output if things go swimmingly. Funny enough, an eerily similar scenario hit Sony's LCD department back in early 2008. What's next? Subcontracting Walkman production to Apple?
Capcom to provide Lost Planet 2's game engine to its external studios
Capcom's practices haven't changed much over the years. The company has been using MT Framework -- an internal engine designed for multiplatform use -- for quite some time now. It's powered many games over the years, including Dead Rising, Devil May Cry 4, and Resident Evil 5. With the release of Lost Planet 2, however, the company is poised to introduce the next evolution of its multiplatform engine, MT Framework 2.0. Capcom has high hopes for 2.0, and is actually going to provide the engine to its external contract studios, RE5 producer Jun Takeuchi told Game Watch. This is a first for the company, which used the first engine as its be-all, end-all means for making games. MT Framework 1 was always designed to be an internal engine; Capcom saw MT Framework 1 as an essential tool of its own to create games. After having great success with the engine over many years, however, folks started asking about using it. So, Capcom kept that in mind when creating the new engine, which the company said won't be outsourced as part of its business (like Epic does with its Unreal Engine, for example), but, again, will be provided to its external contract studios for use. [Via Andriasang]
Sprint mulling outsourcing network maintenance, transferring staff to Ericsson?
Word on the street is that Sprint is currently in heated discussions with Ericsson -- the world's largest network infrastructure company -- to take over management and maintenance of its vast back end along with somewhere between 5,000 to 7,000 of the carrier's employees in an effort to lower costs by about 20 percent as its subscriber counts and tends both stay soft. Interestingly, Sprint already sold some of its towers to TowerCo last year for over half a billion dollars, so it's not clear exactly how Ericsson fits into the puzzle yet -- but at any rate, Sprint would apparently be paying something on the order of $2 billion over the next several years for Ericsson to do its thing. In light of this, it's kind of ironic that Sprint doesn't sell a single Sony Ericsson handset, isn't it?
"Full-time guild director" being hired on Craigslist
It's a tough economy out there, and everyone's looking for a stable job that won't drive them nuts. Enter this kind fellow from Santa Barbara, California -- he's offering "fulltime" pay to someone willing to become a PvP guild director. Duties include picking up skilled new recruits, delivering summaries of what's been going on in the guild, and keeping tabs on raid stats, guild banking, auctions, and so on. He's got a three-box setup you can use when he's not on it (hence, the money to burn), and while pay isn't much at first, he does have plans in mind for a bonus schedule (if the guild gets three people in the top Arena rankings, you get a frozen turkey?).Pretty wild, but as long as someone is willing to pay for something (and I know a lot of guild leaders who'd love to outsource their "jobs" if they had the cash), you can turn it into a real job. And who knows -- putting "WoW Guild Director" on your resume might be really helpful. If you do get hired, be sure to let us know.[via WoW LJ]Update: Apparently Craigslist has flagged the ad for removal. Which is too bad -- despite the fact that we're posting this today, it was originally posted a few days ago. We think it's real.
Nokia exits chip development, licensing out modem technology
Not too long after Nokia delved deeper into media sharing, the firm is now pulling out of the 3G chip development realm and licensing out its modem technology in order to better utilized R&D resources. Reportedly, STMicroelectronics will grab the reigns to develop 3G chips based on Nokia technology, and while the company "will continue to develop its own modems, the decision to license out the technology will bring in additional revenue and allow new players to enter the technically difficult market." Granted, the move isn't entirely surprising considering that mobile companies are shifting further away from anything that's not a core competency, but 200 Nokia employees will be transferred over to STMicro in Q4 as a part of the move.
Sony Ericsson hooks up with Sagem for low-end lineup
We know that the cellphone makin' game can be rough, Sony Ericsson; we really do. Sometimes you've just gotta take a load off. Heck, your fellow European in the Big Five, Nokia, washed its hands of much of its CDMA responsibilities through a deal with Korea's Pantech, so we can totally understand wanting to offload your low-end R&D and manufacturing duties to SAFRAN Group's Sagem. Of course, Sagem is a little closer to home -- France, to be exact -- than those Korean folks, so you should have a pretty easy go of it keeping your rebranded stuff in check. In fact, you're so uptight about it that you've decided to open a new office right in Sagem's hometown of Cergy, France, dedicated to the low-end segment. We look forward to seeing what y'all come up with -- let's just try to make them a little more believable than the "Nokia" 6315i, mkay?
Monster Cable fires 120 employees, still overcharges for accessories
Wouldn't it figure -- the company synonymous for charging absurd amounts of coinage for products that are debatably no better than the copper-laced counterparts available en masse for much less is cutting 120 jobs, only to replace them with outsourced labor. While we fully understand the "business demands of the 21st century," as Mr. Lee so aptly implied, there's something to be said when you're suckering folks into buying cranking out $100 HDMI cables and $70 iPod controllers, yet can't afford to hook your loyal employees up with anything more than "four weeks severance" and a dash of "counseling." What's notable about all this is that prior to this recent batch of layoffs, excessed employees received "four weeks pay plus one additional week of pay per year of service." Furthermore, many employees say the job searching assistance is "worthless," as they really have no desirable skills besides the one's learned at Monster. 'Tis a shame to see the folks let go, but we're fairly certain the firm's (supposed) cash drought isn't due to a lack in markup.[Via CEPro]
