New multiyear deals expand IBM’s involvement in large-scale business IT projects to India’s Idea Cellular, Sweden’s Sony Ericsson and Spain’s Endesa. The agreements re-emphasize the role of IBM’s Global Services in bolstering the company’s bottom line even in the midst of an international downturn.

IBM announced Jan. 29 three multiyear agreements with global corporations to provide infrastructure and IT services on a worldwide scope. The moves could help bolster IBM Global Services, the company’s international business consulting and IT management division, whose 2008 revenues of $9.6 billion were down 4 percent from 2007. (continuare…)

With its market share in the personal computer business slipping, Dell may be the next computer company to enter the cell phone market.

According to The Wall Street Journal, engineers at Dell have produced two smartphone prototypes: one with a touch screen similar to Apple’s iPhone and another with a slide-out keypad. The prototypes reportedly use operating systems Android and Windows Mobile.

Dell would not comment on the article. (continuare…)

Japanese electronics giant NEC has become the latest company to announce huge job cuts, revealing on Friday that a major restructure would see the loss of roughly 20,000 employees.

The cuts will come from NEC’s Japanese and worldwide operations.

The company estimated that it lost ¥129bn (£1.01bn) over the past nine months owing to a slow mobile market, falling demand for its semiconductor offerings and an unfavourable currency exchange rate.

NEC’s huge losses are a stark contrast to forecasts made just three months ago, when the company predicted a yearly profit of ¥10bn (£78m). The latest projection drops the earnings estimate by ¥305bn (£2.4bn).

The job cuts will be among the largest in what has been a crippling wave of layoffs throughout the technology industry. AT &T cut 12,000 jobs in December, and Sprint Nextel cut 8,000 employees cut last week.

The NEC total still falls far below the 30,000 employees who lost their jobs when electronics retailer Circuit City was forced to liquidate after filing for bankruptcy protection.