5 Companies That Had A Rough Week

The Week Ending April 14

Topping this week's roundup of companies that had a rough week is Ciber, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and struck a deal to sell its North America and India businesses.

Also making the list this week were security vendor Cylance and communications giant Comcast – both of which experienced the sudden departure of their chief technology officers; the city of Dallas, whose emergency notification system was hacked, setting off the city's emergency sirens; and the PC industry, which saw PC shipments in the first quarter fall to their lowest level in 10 years.

Not everyone in the IT industry was having a rough go of it this week. For a rundown of companies that made smart decisions, executed savvy strategic moves – or just had good luck – check out this week's 5 Companies That Came To Win roundup.

Ciber Files For Chapter 11, Takes $50 Million CapGemini Bid To Buy North America, India Businesses

Solution provider Ciber's struggles to stay afloat may have come to an end this week when the solution provider filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and said it had entered into a "stalking horse" agreement for Capgemini to purchase its $275 million North America and India businesses.

The Chapter 11 filing with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware came about because of Ciber's defaulting on its credit facility from Wells Fargo, which had a $28.5 million outstanding balance as of April 10.

Also this week the New York Stock Exchange suspended trading of Ciber's stock, which has languished below $1 since late 2016, and began proceedings to delist the stock.

PC Industry In Q1 Sees Lowest Number Of Unit Shipments in 10 Years

The first quarter of 2017 was a rough one for most PC vendors – but especially for second-tier vendors – with worldwide PC shipments declining 2.4 percent from the same quarter one year ago. The 62.2 million PC units shipped during the quarter marked the first time quarterly shipments have fallen below 63 million since 2007.

The quarter was especially tough for smaller vendors such as Asus (shipments down 14.0 percent) and Acer Group (down 1.8 percent) and others that suffered unit shipment declines.

The quarter could also be seen as a tough one for Lenovo: While it remained the market leader with a 19.9 percent market share of the first-quarter worldwide PC unit shipments, its unit shipment growth in the quarter was an unimpressive 1.2 percent. Rivals HP Inc. (first-quarter unit shipment growth of 6.5 percent) and Dell (3.4 percent growth) are gaining on Lenovo in overall market share.

Comcast CTO Suddenly Departs The Company

Communications giant Comcast is without a CTO this week after Sree Kotay left the company for personal reasons.

Kotay had worked for Comcast for 10 years and played a significant role in creating the company's X1 video platform and its new voice services. He was promoted to CTO in May 2016 to replace Tony Werner, who became president of Technology and Product.

No replacement has been named as of yet.

Cylance CTO Leaves The Security Company

Comcast isn't the only company that found itself without a CTO this week. Cylance CTO Glenn Chisholm has left the company, CRN reported this week, the latest in a series of changes at the next-generation endpoint security vendor.

Chisholm was one of the earliest employees at Cylance, joining shortly after its launch in 2012 to direct its strategic product and mathematical direction. He also led the company's research and development teams.

While the company has reportedly gone through a round of layoffs recently, the company said Chisholm's departure was unrelated to that. A spokesperson said Chisholm is pursuing "another big idea," but he remains on the Cylance Board of Advisors.

Hackers Trigger Dallas Emergency Siren System

Hackers broke into the city of Dallas' emergency notification system over the weekend and triggered more than 150 emergency sirens, according to the Dallas Office of Emergency Management.

The hacker tricked the system into sending repeat signals to activate each siren as many as 60 times, keeping the city's residents on edge for more than 90 minutes.

Solution providers said the incident demonstrates the vulnerability of some municipal systems to malicious attacks and the need for regular IT system security assessments.