5 Companies That Had A Rough Week

The Week Ending July 6

Topping this week's roundup of those having a rough week are HTC and SS&C Technologies, which both announced major layoffs.

Also making the list this week is Samsung, which signaled that it expects to see a revenue drop for its most recent quarter and Intel, which reportedly got word that Apple is halting plans to use Intel Bluetooth and Wi-Fi modems in 2020 iPhone models.

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.

1,500 HTC Employees Face Layoffs

HTC, the Taiwanese manufacturer of Android smartphones and virtual reality headsets, is paring back its staff once again.

HTC is reportedly laying off some 1,500 employees within the company's Taiwan factories, about 23 percent of the manufacturer's workforce. The cuts are expected to be completed by the end of September.

HTC has seen its share of the smartphone market decline in recent years amid stiff competition from Samsung and other manufacturers.

The layoffs follow a deal with Google in September under which another 2,000 HTC employees – about half of the company's research and development staff – were transferred to Google.

DST Systems Workers Hit With Layoffs After SS&C Takeover

Speaking of job cuts, SS&C Technologies Holdings has begun laying off 900 employees after completing its $5.4 billion takeover of DST Systems two months ago.

The job cuts are expected to hit employees at DST and its subsidiaries. Many of the cuts were made in recent weeks, according to an SS&C filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, although some layoffs will continue through December.

DST has approximately 4,000 employees in the Kansas City area and hundreds of employees were reported to have been laid off there.

Samsung Expects Drop In Quarterly Revenue Amid Smartphone Slowdown

As signs emerge of a slowdown in global smartphone demand, Samsung this week signaled that it expects to see a revenue drop for its most recent quarter.

On Friday Samsung announced guidance on sales for its second quarter, saying that revenue is expected to be between $51.06 billion and $52.85 billion. The top end of that range would mark a year-over-year revenue decline of 3.2 percent.

A slowdown in smartphone sales is at least partly to blame. A recent Wall Street Journal article quoted Eugene Investment and Securities analyst Lee Seung-woo as saying he expects Samsung to ship 31 million Galaxy S9 devices in 2018, down from the 50 million units of the Galaxy S7 the company shipped in 2016.

Future iPhones Reportedly Won't Use Intel Bluetooth, Wi-Fi Modems

Apple is reportedly halting plans to use Intel Bluetooth and Wi-Fi modems in 2020 iPhone models, which has led Intel to end development of the component.

Apple had been seen as the main customer for Intel's forthcoming Sunny Peak modems. But Apple has reportedly notified Intel of its decision not to use the modems within iPhones that Apple is developing for 2020.

Intel personnel who had been working on Sunny Peak will be reassigned to other projects.

Chrome, Firefox Pull Browser Extension After Concerns Over Data Privacy

Google and Mozilla, the developers of the Chrome and Firefox browsers, respectively, scrambled this week to pull the "Stylish" browser extension from their online stores after a software engineer and blogger said the extension was collecting users' web-surfing data and sending it back to its developer.

Stylish is a popular browser extension that makes it easier to customize websites.

Blogger Robert Heaton said in a post this week that Stylish, since early 2017, has been recording its users' browsing activity and sending that data to SimilarWeb, the owner of Stylish.

Multiple media sites reported Heaton's findings, including Slashdot and SecurityNow, and said that Mozilla recommended that users already using Stylish disable the software.