Bay Area Business News - This Week

Cisco irks shareholders ... again

For the fourth quarter in a row, Cisco Systems' earnings disappointed investors and sent the stock into a tailspin. The shares dropped 14 percent on Thursday, following lower-than-expected gross profit margins last quarter. Competition has forced the company to cut prices, and it's spending more money to enter new markets. Some analysts are worried the company is turning into a conglomerate and spreading itself too thin. "They've become the Procter & Gamble of networking," said Joanna Makris, an analyst at Mizuho Securities.

 

Top Wells Fargo executive departs

Howard Atkins, Wells Fargo's chief financial officer, unexpectedly resigned Wednesday for personal reasons, taking an unpaid leave of absence until he retires in August. He'll be replaced by Chief Administrative Officer Timothy Sloan. The San Francisco bank said Atkins' departure was "unrelated to the company's financial condition or financial reporting," though it wouldn't discuss reasons for his departure. Atkins may be eligible to receive more than $22 million in compensation and benefits when he officially retires.

 

Chevron wins round in Ecuador fight

On Tuesday, Chevron won a reprieve against lawyers representing Ecuador residents, who aim to collect billions of dollars in damages against the oil company. A federal judge in New York granted a restraining order for 28 days against the attorneys, which means they won't be able to enforce an expected award against Chevron outside the South American country during that time. The case hinges on claims that Texaco, acquired by Chevron in 2001, fouled the Amazon basin. Chevron says that the lawyers and activists fighting the company fabricated evidence to make their case.

 

Hewlett-Packard unveils TouchPad

Capitalizing on its acquisition of Palm last year, Hewlett-Packard rolled out a tablet computer called the TouchPad on Wednesday. The Palo Alto company is relying on the expertise of Palm leader Jon Rubinstein, an Apple veteran, to challenge the market-leading iPad. The company also rolled out new smart phones based on Palm's WebOSPCs as well. software - the Veer and the Pre 3 - and it announced plans to put the operating system on some.

 

Facebook moving to Menlo Park

Facebook announced plans Tuesday to uproot its headquarters from Palo Alto and move across the border to Menlo Park. The social-networking giant will rent about 1 million square feet of a corporate campus formerly occupied by Sun Microsystems - the biggest lease deal in Silicon Valley in two decades. Facebook currently has more than 2,000 employees - 1,400 of them in Palo Alto.