Hewlett-Packard to slash 27,000 jobs by 2014

SAN FRANCISCO, United States of America - Hewlett-Packard said Wednesday, May 23, it plans to cut 27,000 jobs, or 8% of its global workforce, by 2014 in a major restructuring effort for the computer giant.

The world's biggest personal computer maker said the move was part of "a multi-year productivity initiative designed to simplify business processes, advance innovation and deliver better results for customers, employees and shareholders."

The restructuring is expected to generate annualized savings of US$3.0-3.5 billion by the end of the 2014 fiscal year for HP, which is struggling amid a move to mobile devices and tablet computers.

The savings will mostly be reinvested back into the company and boost investment in areas such as cloud computing, big data and security, and other segments "that offer attractive growth potential."

The workforce cuts will include an early retirement program and "will vary by country, based on local legal requirements and consultation with works councils and employee representatives, as appropriate."

The company will also seek savings in other ways including improvements in its supply chain and simplifying some business processes.

"While some of these actions are difficult... We are setting HP on a path to extend our global leadership and deliver the greatest value to customers and shareholders," said Meg Whitman, HP president and chief executive.

The move came as the Palo Alto, California-based firm reported a 31 percent drop in profits in its second fiscal quarter to $1.6 billion. Revenue in the period fell three percent from a year ago to $30.7 billion.

The results excluding special items amounted to 98 cents a share, better than expected. And revenues were above most Wall Street estimates as well.

In after-hours trade, HP shares jumped 5.69% to $22.28.

Progress

"We are making progress in our multi-year effort to make HP simpler, more efficient and better for customers, employees, and shareholders," Whitman said.

"This quarter we exceeded our previously provided outlook and are executing against our strategy, but we still have a lot of work to do."

News of the reorganization leaked last week, but analysts gave a cool reception.

Deutsche Bank analysts said previous cuts "have done little to improve HP's competitive position or reduce its reliance on declining or troubled businesses" and added that the company "has been restructuring for the past decade."

A separate note from Bernstein Research lamented "HP's apparent lack of competitiveness," and argued that "investors view HP as a 'broken' company."

Whitman has vowed to turn the company around after a series of problems including a failed tablet computer and a reversal on plans for its PC unit.

A former chief executive of eBay and unsuccessful candidate for governor of California, Whitman took the reins at HP in September after her predecessor, Leo Apotheker, was ousted after just 11 months on the job.

In the quarterly results, HP said revenues from its Personal Systems Group, which includes the PC division, were flat year-over-year. Desktop sales were up five percent, notebook units were down six percent and total unit sales were down one percent.

Last year, HP announced it was discontinuing the TouchPad, a tablet computer powered by its own webOS software, just seven weeks after it hit the market dominated by Apple's iPad.

HP also last year said it was readying plans to spin off its PC division and stop making tablet computers, but reversed course later after naming Whitman as chief executive.

The low-margin PC market has been flat amid an astronomical increase in powerful smartphones and the arrival of hot-selling tablet computers such as the iPad.

Dell, which is the number three PC maker worldwide and faces similar problems, on Tuesday reported a 33 percent drop in quarterly profits. - Agence France-Presse

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Pinay ex-nanny sues Sharon Stone for abuse

LOS ANGELES, United States of America (UPDATED) - A Filipina former nanny of Sharon Stone is suing the US film star for wrongful dismissal and harassment, including by allegedly making derogatory remarks about her ethnicity and religion.

But the star's publicist slammed the lawsuit as "absurd," claiming the ex-nanny was simply trying to "cash in" on Stone.

In legal papers filed in Los Angeles on Tuesday, Erlinda Elemen claims the actress equated being Filipino with being stupid, and ordered her not to speak in front of her children so they would not "talk like you."

The "Basic Instinct" star also banned Elemen, who was dismissed last year, from reading the Bible in Stone's home, even though she lived with her to look after the actress's three children, and frequently traveled with them.

From August 2010, Elemen "was repeatedly subjected to repeated derogatory comments and slurs by (Stone) related to her Filipino ethnicity and heritage," said the 17-page lawsuit.

"These statements included ... comments about Plaintiff's Filipino accent (ie Plaintiff was instructed to refrain from speaking to the children because Defendant did not want them to 'talk like you'), comments about Filipino food, and comments which equated being Filipino with being stupid," it added.

In addition, Stone "was repeatedly verbally dismissive of Plaintiff's deeply held religious beliefs, criticized Plaintiff for frequently attending church, and, on one occasion, forbade Plaintiff from reading the Bible..."

Elemen, who was hired in October 2006 and was promoted to head live-in nanny two years later, was dismissed in February 2011, after Stone learned she was paid overtime when traveling with the children and on holiday days.

Stone told her nanny that she had no right to overtime pay, and "accused Plaintiff of 'stealing' from her by taking the ... overtime pay, told Plaintiff that it was 'illegal' .. to have taken the pay, and asked for the money back."

The lawsuit asks for an unspecified amount for unpaid wages, damages and penalties, and is seeking trial by jury.

Stone's say

But a statement released by Stone's publicist dismissed the legal action.

"This is an absurd lawsuit that has been filed by a disgruntled ex-employee who is obviously looking to get money any way she can," it said.

"After she was terminated approximately one and a half years ago, she filed claims for alleged disability and workers compensation. Now, she is obviously looking for another opportunity to cash in.

"This is a frivolous lawsuit for absurd claims that are made up and fabricated. Sharon Stone will be completely vindicated in court."

Last year the actress was ordered to pay $232,000 in compensation to a worker who injured his knee after slipping and falling in her back yard in 2006. - Agence France-Presse

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France, Germany in EU summit showdown

BRUSSELS, Belgium - France and Germany crossed swords Wednesday, May 23, over how to spur growth in the debt-stricken eurozone at an EU summit tinged by plunging markets and the euro hitting a near two-year low.

"We have to act straight away for growth," French President Francois Hollande insisted amid deepening worries over Greece's eurozone future and Spain's troubled banks. "Otherwise there will still be doubt on the markets."

"We have no time to waste," the freshly elected Socialist leader stressed at his first EU summit after a cost-conscious train ride from Paris.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel faced pressure to give ground on her hardline austerity doctrine as the European single currency fell to US$1.2564 and London, Frankfurt and Paris stock exchanges each shed well over 2%.

However, she rejected a call by Hollande for eurobonds -- jointly pooled eurozone debt -- on the grounds they are "not a contribution to stimulating growth in the eurozone" and adding that such instruments ran contrary to EU treaties.

Berlin fears eurobonds would only result in German taxpayers permanently underwriting the public finances of weaker eurozone economies.

In a German press interview appearing on Thursday, Merkel's finance minister Wolfgang Schaeuble maintained that "the differences between ourselves and France are not so great."

Floating ideas

Schaeuble said Hollande wants more done to kickstart growth, but insisted that the French president "does not want to water down" a treaty obliging balanced budgets the Frenchman initially said he wanted to re-negotiate.

"We're not talking about an easing of budgetary discipline," Schaeuble insisted.

A member of Hollande's entourage said he was "floating ideas" but "not coming to Brussels with a Kalashnikov."

Non-euro Britain also flexed muscles, ruling out in advance other core ideas put forward by European Union officials and backed by Hollande -- including a tax on financial transactions.

Home to three quarters of Europe's financial services industry, London vehemently rejects the tax.

Opening the dinner talks, EU president Herman Van Rompuy underlined the need to find "a strong will to compromise" with the risk of knock-on effects from a Greek eurozone exit exercising markets.

After Germany's central bank said the picture in Athens ahead of June 17 elections was "highly alarming," leaders were expected to remind Greek voters that they expect Athens to honour a 237-billion-euro ($300 billion) bailout deal agreed in March.

"I don't believe we can afford to allow this issue to be endlessly fudged or put off," said British Prime Minister David Cameron, notably urging the European Central Bank (ECB) to do more.

Treasury officials from the other 16 eurozone member states were told this week to "reflect" on what an exit would mean for their economies, a diplomat from one eurozone country told AFP.

Spain's case

The Greek finance ministry in Athens "categorically" denied this was the case.

Contingency planning that diplomats called "commonsense" stems from arguably greater worries about Spain and Italy, after a report by Fitch Rating agency showed foreign investors had fled Spanish and Italian debt in huge numbers.

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said Spain did not require the support of European rescue funds, saying there were "faster instruments" -- an apparent allusion to the ECB which has previously bought government bonds in sell-on markets.

Analysts see this as inevitable, with consultant Sony Kapoor warning that Spain otherwise "is headed toward needing a fully-fledged bailout."

Wednesday's talks were set to endorse a trial for 230 million euros in seed money from the EU's budget this year and next by way of EU "project bonds."

This is intended to attract 4.5 billion euros of long-term private investment for Europe's incomplete energy, transport and digital networks.

Other ideas on the table included a 10-billion-euro boost to European Investment Bank (EIB). - Agence France-Presse

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Why Phillip Phillips won American Idol Season 11

PINOY HEARTBREAK. Global sentiment favored Filipino-Mexican Jessica Sanchez but the American Idol for Season 11 is Phillip Phillips

MANILA, Philippines - If we go by total social media sentiment, Jessica appeared to be in the lead.

So why did Phillip Phillips win the Season 11 of American Idol?

A study which analyzed the geolocation of tweets concerning the popular show showed that while Jessica led in terms of Twitter mentions globally, Phillips was generally favored in the US. (Read the full study below)

The Twitter data was analyzed in an attempt to predict the American Idol winner ahead of the airing of the official result.

The study, which analyzed the fanbase of each contestant, both within the US and abroad, revealed that "strong regional polarizations occur" with respect to social media chatter concerning the contestants.

See world rankings against US rankings below.

GLOBAL SENTIMENT FOR JESSICA. But it was the US votes that mattered

The map below shows that the US social media denizens favored Phillip Phillips. It shows that Jessica’s fan base was from the West Coast and in other pockets of the US while Phillip was ahead with the rest of the country.

US WENT FOR PHILLIPS. The map shows states where tweets favoring Phillips dominated

Of course, things would have been different if the rest of the world including Pinoys were allowed to vote.

The study said that, "the advantage of Phillip in the U.S. is remarkably smaller than the one of Jessica in the aggregated dataset, and the voting coming from abroad might have a crucial role in determining the outcome of the ?nale."

The study also said that Jessica is the only contestant that had a strong Twitter signal originating from outside of the U.S. (and in particular from the Philippines). It added that this strong Twitter sentiment favoring the Filipino-Mexican has been increasing after the show on April 19.

The maps below show social media attention focused on American Idol Season 11 emanating both within and outside the United States.

IDOL WORSHIP? Social media attention focused on American Idol Season 11

The study was conducted by Fabio Ciulla, Delia Mocanu, Andrea Baronchelli, Bruno Goncalves, Nicola Perra, and Alessandro Vespignani--all from the Department of Physics of Boston's Northeastern University.

Vespignani is also with the Institute for Scientific Interchange Foundation of Turin, Italy as well as with the Institute for Quantitative Social Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachussetts. - Rappler.com

Social Media Analysis: American Idol Finale

Click on the links below for more of the American Idol finale.

Click on the links below for previous social media predictions.

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Social media indicates Jessica is next 'Idol'

MANILA, Philippines - The American Idol finals night has come and gone. Both finalists delivered performances that had the judges evenly split with the performances. What did Rappler see online?

Online sentiment has returned in favor of Jessica Sanchez.

At least 90 minutes before the finals, Jessica Sanchez and Phillip Phillips were tied in online sentiment. Our final tracker for this year’s American Idol finalists show Jessica continuing to grow and in fact accelerating in Twitter follower growth while Phillip’s follower growth actually slowed down.

Socialmention.com is showing Jessica’s sentiment score growing from before the finals (11:1) to 19:1 after her finals performance. Phillip’s sentiment score slightly declines (from 6:1 to 5:1) over the same time period.

Tracking their Twitter handles, we see an even bigger decline in sentiment for Phillip (from 25:1 down to 11:1) while Jessica’s sentiment score grew (from 16:1 to 19:1). Jessica’s passion score also grew.

Based on the significant increase in positive sentiment, the indicators point to Jessica as this year’s new American Idol. The growth in passion (which is a measure of the frequency of people speaking about Jessica), also favors Jessica.

Sentiment140.com tracks a rise in negatives for both finalists – indicating a polarization of the fan base.

This is natural as people cast their votes for one finalist over the other. While there seems to be a bigger rise in negatives toward Jessica, the change in negatives for their Twitter handles is negligible.

Tracking their real names, there was a big spike in Jessica’s negatives (a 13% increase) but sentiment remained significantly positive for both finalists.

To this end, we believe social media is indicating that Jessica Sanchez will be the next American Idol.

Finally, Zaba Research has also released the result of their predictive engine model. Zaba also predicts that Jessica Sanchez will be the next American Idol.

Should these predictions come true, Jessica will be the first American Idol winner to have been voted off the show and saved by the judges.

A win by Jessica will also break a streak of male winners since David Cook’s win in 2008 all the way to last year’s winner, Scotty McCreery. There have been 6 male American Idol winners and 4 female winners. - Rappler.com

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Suu Kyi to make landmark foreign trip next week

YANGON, Myanmar (AFP) - Myanmar pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi will travel overseas next week for the first time in more than two decades to attend an economic forum in Bangkok, her party said Thursday.

The former political prisoner's plan to leave her homeland for the first time since 1988 is the latest sign of dramatic political change sweeping through the country, where decades of outright military rule ended last year.

"She will go to the World Economic Forum (on East Asia) in Thailand," said Nyan Win, a spokesman for the Nobel laureate's National League for Democracy.

The gathering of senior government officials and business leaders from around the region is being held from May 30 to June 1 at a luxury hotel in the Thai capital.

Myanmar President Thein Sein will also attend the event, according to a government official who did not want to be named.

Suu Kyi was released from seven straight years of house arrest in November 2010 and has now been issued with a passport, enabling her to travel abroad for the first time in 24 years.

She also plans to go to Europe where she will address an International Labour Organization conference in Geneva on June 14.

After that she will make a speech in Oslo on June 16 to accept the Nobel Peace Prize she was awarded in 1991 for her peaceful struggle for democracy, according to the Nobel Committee.

At the time her British husband Michael Aris, who died in 1999 while she remained imprisoned, and her two sons accepted the Nobel medal on her behalf.

Suu Kyi also intends to travel to Britain, where she lived for years with her family, and has been given the rare honour of addressing the country's parliament on June 21.

The daughter of Myanmar's independence hero General Aung San was thrust into the limelight as protests broke out against the junta while she was visiting her homeland to care for her sick mother in 1988.

The military crushed the demonstrations and in July 1989 placed Suu Kyi under house arrest, 10 months after she helped form the National League for Democracy.

Despite her confinement, the NLD won a landslide victory in 1990 elections, but the junta did not recognise the result.

She spent much of the two decades since then locked up in her Yangon home and has not set foot outside Myanmar, fearing that the generals would prevent her from returning.

Now 66, Suu Kyi was released in November 2010 just days after another controversial election won by the military's political allies.

But since then Thein Sein, a former general, has won international praise for releasing hundreds of political prisoners and welcoming Suu Kyi and her party back into mainstream politics.

Myanmar's relations with the international community have improved dramatically since his nominally civilian government took over. Last month Suu Kyi won her first ever seat in parliament in by-elections.

In response the international community has begun to roll back sanctions against the impoverished country, led by the European Union which has suspended all measures except an arms embargo for one year. - Agence France-Presse

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Aboitiz to build new hydropower facilities in Bukidnon

DAVAO CITY, Philippines - Amid the power shortage in Mindanao, a wholly owned unit of Aboitiz Power Corp has announced its plans to construct two run-of-river hydroelectric power plants in Kitaotao, Bukidnon.

Hedcor Inc vice president for business department Gregorio Jabonillo said the plants will have a combined generation capacity of 28.2 megawatts.

Jabonillo explained that the facilities would harness the water running from Sita River and Simod River to run its turbines for power generation.

He added that about 90% of the water in the river will be diverted through pipes to create enough push to generate power in the turbines.

The facilities will cover up to 5 kilometers of Sita River and 4 kilometers of Simod River.

“After the process, we will also return the water to the river in a cleaner state,” Jabonillo said.

Jabonillo said that the proposed facility in Sita River is targeted to have a capacity of 16.4 megawatts while that in Simod River is expected to produce 11.8 megawatts.

Yearly, the facilities are estimated to generate 59 million kilowatt-hours power, which would help boost supply in Mindanao, he explained.

The company said aside from power generation, the power complex will also bring different forms of benefits and assistance to the host communities.

“Our facilities, which will be built on the ancestral domain of our brothers and sisters from the indigenous tribes of Bukidnon, will produce substantial benefits to the host communities including employment, medical assistance, schools and infrastructure projects,” Jabonillo said.

And the most important benefit of the host communities from these facilities, he added, is the annual generation share from the operations.

In the rounds of consultations with the tribal communities, the company promised the residents that there is nothing to worry about any ill environmental effects of the proposed project.

However, Mindanao-based environmental group Panalipdan criticizes the power project for possible adverse effects to the local ecosystem.

Juland Suazo, spokesperson of Panalipdan, said that despite the promises made by the company that the facility will champion clean energy, it will still have emissions, and the pipes where the water will be diverted will eventually accumulate methane.

“If the flow of water would be diverted and redesigned then definitely this would have its unimaginable adverse effects on the flora and fauna in the community,” Suazo said.

Possible long-term effects of the projects include unpredictable flashfloods and the drying of the irrigation system, which is being used on the rice fields of the farmers, he explained.

“The accumulation of wealth is privatized while the accumulation of damages is socialized,” Suazo said.

Aboitiz and Hedcor consistently asserted that their clean technology will have no negative impacts to the environment. - Rappler.com

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