Article Abstract:
Unisys Corp announces that it will lay off 10,000 of its 70,000 employees, and the company will take a $1.3 billion charge in the 2nd qtr of 1991. The charge includes $925 million to pay for layoffs and closing of facilities, and $275 million for an investment in Memorex, which will be written off. Unisys already had lost $100.2 million in the 2nd qtr before the special charge was announced. Industry analysts say that a $1.3 billion loss in the quarter indicates that Unisys might not recover. Unisys, they say, is selling large computers in a market that now is focused on smaller machines and software. The company's chairman and CEO, James A. Unruh, foresees restored profitability by 1991. Unisys's stock was up 50 cents on Tuesday, Jul 23, 1991, closing at $4.
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Article Abstract:
Kenneth H. Olsen, founder and president of Digital Equipment Corp (DEC), announces that he will retire. Olsen has directed DEC for 35 years. He founded DEC in 1957 with $70,000 of borrowed money, and he built the company into a $14 billion business. Olsen has been under pressure to step aside because DEC's fortunes have been in decline in recent years. The company is expected to post $2 billion in losses in the 4th qtr of 1992. The loss will include $1.7 billion of restructuring and accounting costs. Even so, there was no hint that Olsen would retire. Industry observers speculate that DEC's board of directors might have forced the move. DEC VP Robert B. Palmer will succeed Kenneth Olsen.
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Article Abstract:
The complicated Japanese language makes it unwieldy to device keyboards for microcomputers but researchers are working on voice recognition machines that can translate the spoken Japanese into kanji characters. Microcomputers have not caught on in Japan as much as they have in the US, partly because of the Japanese 7,000-character alphabet. The voice recognition technology is expected to open up a new market, but most industry observers are not optimistic about the overnight development of such a market. The elimination of the keyboard in microcomputers is a trend that is already manifesting itself in the development of pen-based computing.
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