techfile 31.1.09

January 31, 2009 6:00 am by morning call

The Japanese tech sector was already expecting poor results from some of the country’s stalwarts. But the news from NEC and Hitachi could hardly have been worse. NEC, which makes chips and computer systems, forecast a $3.2bn loss for the fiscal year and announced it would slash more than 20,000 jobs. Hitachi, maker of everything from TVs to power systems, announced it was laying off 7,000 after a full-year net loss of $7.8bn.
Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin is now listed as a company founder on the company’s website. Valleywag, which noted the change, speculates that Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg may have finally “deigned to recognize his former Harvard buddy” in order to derail a forthcoming book on Facebook, which relies heavily on Saverin as a source.
As money for new companies continues to dry up and venture capitalists search in vain for painless exits, there is a rare bright-spot in Silicon Valley. OpenTable, the online restaurant reservations site, has filed for an IPO. In its filing with the SEC, OpenTable revealed that revenues through the nine months ending September 2008 were $41.3m, a 41 per cent increase from the same time a year earlier. The San Francisco company is hoping to raise as much as $40m, possibly for an international expansion.

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