It’s at Sony: 8,000 staff to be laid off worldwide

Sony, the Japanese consumer electronics giant, stepped up its efforts to cut costs Tuesday, announcing it would shed 8,000 jobs and rein in planned investments in response to the global financial crisis and the severe cutback in spending by worried shoppers around the world.

The measures, combined with a bleak outlook from its rival, Samsung of South Korea, and news that the Japanese economy had contracted more than initially thought during the third quarter, highlighted how much Asian economies were now suffering from the fallout from the financial crisis — now increasingly also an economic crisis — that began in the United States last year.

Many economists believe worse is still to come, both in terms of earnings declines and job cuts, for companies across Asia as their export-reliant businesses reel from the sharp drop in global demand for cars, refrigerators, television sets and other discretionary items.

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The real deal?

Jade Goody had barely joined the Bigg Boss house before she was being flown back to the UK, after a shocking revelation that she had cervical cancer.

The British reality TV star's inclusion in Bigg Boss hosted by former rival Shilpa Shetty has been making headlines across the country for the past week.

Less than 48 hours into the show, Goody learnt that she had cervical cancer.According to a leading UK newspaper's Jade was called into the Diary Room where she spoke to her consultant in UK by phone. She was reportedly hysterical as she announced to her housemates. "I have cancer".

The timing has got people questioning what really went on behind the scenes before the announcement which will undoubtedly push up the show's ratings. "You know the way the world is. People will go to any length to get duplicity but at the same time I feel sorry for Jude Goody" said designer Nainika Karan.

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Ballmer becomes lone voice at Microsoft's helm

Steve Ballmer has been CEO at Microsoft Corp for eight years, but he will finally get to move into the corner office vacated by Bill Gates, the college friend who brought him to the company nearly three decades ago.

The pressure of leading the world's largest software maker will only escalate in the wake of a bungled attempt to acquire Yahoo Inc, a move that forced the Web pioneer into the waiting arms of Microsoft's arch rival, Google Inc.

Adding fuel to the fire has been a lukewarm reception by customers for the company's flagship product, Windows Vista.

"The pressure is certainly on," said Alan Davis, analyst at investment firm D.A. Davidson.

For the first time in his career, the 52-year-old Ballmer, whose public histrionics often overshadow a sharp intellect and a gift for numbers, must shoulder the weight of Microsoft's future without Gates, who stepped down on Friday from the company he co-founded to focus on philanthropy.

Their partnership was forged at Harvard University, where the pair formed an unlikely friendship: Gates, the middle child of a prominent Seattle family, and Ballmer, a Detroit native whose parents never went to college.

They both lived in a dormitory full of "anti-social math types," according to Gates. Ballmer, outgoing and involved in many social clubs on campus, seemed to be a study in contrast to the aloof Gates, who preferred all-night programming sessions and poker games.

However, the pair shared a love of math and bonded over their reputations as energetic guys. To this day, they still engage each other in numbers games, calling it "math camp."

After college, Ballmer went to work at Procter & Gamble Co, sharing an office with current General Electric Co CEO Jeffrey Immelt, who has said the two disliked a common boss and would pass the days playing garbage-can basketball.

Ballmer spent a year at Stanford University business school before Gates persuaded him to drop out and become Microsoft's first business manager. A month after joining, he found it was running behind on orders and its engineers were overworked.

"I decided to quit," Ballmer said at an employee event to mark Gates's last day at Microsoft. "I said, 'Jeez, I just dropped out of business school to come to a 30-person company as the bookkeeper'."

Gates persuaded Ballmer to stay at the company over dinner, explaining Microsoft's ambitious vision: to place a computer on every desk and in every home.

"SCARY" MANAGEMENT

Microsoft executives talk about Ballmer's ability to digest large chunks of data, while carefully probing business proposals for weaknesses in logic or reasoning.

Ballmer's sales and marketing prowess complemented Gates's technical acumen as Microsoft grew from a fledgling start-up into a world-beating software company.

He worked up the ranks, becoming Microsoft's president in 1998 and replacing Gates as CEO in 2000. Ballmer is Microsoft's second-biggest shareholder after Gates with a 4.3 percent stake in the company, valued at more than $11 billion.

Michael Silver, analyst at research firm Gartner, describes Ballmer's management style as "scary," but credits him for being a good listener to the needs of his customers.

"Steve's a bright, tough guy and a good marketeer," said Silver. "His personality can be very imposing."

Ballmer often grabs headlines with sharply worded jabs at competitors. He once called free Linux software "a cancer" and dismissed Web search leader Google as "a one-trick pony."

His exuberance for all-things Microsoft has also earned him viral video fame on par with lonelygirl15 or Obama Girl. Video of Ballmer's enthusiastic support for software developers has been viewed more than 1 million times on YouTube, a performance that earned him the unflattering nickname of "Monkey Boy."

"He was always the foil to Gates," said Mary Jo Foley, author of "Microsoft 2.0: How Microsoft Plans to Stay Relevant in the Post-Gates Era."

"Gates is such a serious, plodding, methodical guy and Ballmer knew that to be part of the dynamic duo with Bill, he needed to be the opposite."