General Electric Co.’s media and theme park subsidiary, NBC Universal, this week laid off about 500 employees — about 3 percent of its work force of 15,000 — as part of a plan to trim $500 million next year, a person familiar with the situation said Thursday.
Several correspondents and other staff were laid off at NBC News. Positions were cut in roughly even proportions across NBC Universal’s ad sales, theme parks, movie studio and cable networks, said the person, who requested anonymity because she was not authorized to speak publicly.
The moves included putting the nightly CNBC show “The Big Idea” with Donny Deutsch on hiatus, said Brian Steel, vice president of CNBC public relations.
“Given current economic conditions the feeling was that now is not the right time to do a ‘success’ show five days a week,” Steel said. Deutsch will now work on a monthly special and appear regularly on CNBC and the “Today Show,” he said.
Among those laid off at the news division, which had 1,200 employees, are Dallas reporter Don Teague, “Dateline NBC” West Coast correspondent John Larson and Mark Mullen, who served as Beijing Olympics bureau chief.
The staff reductions are in line with the corporate goal of a 3 percent budget cut next year.
They are part of the cuts NBC Universal Chief Executive Jeff Zucker announced in a memo in October, saying “it has become evident that the decline in consumer confidence and spending will impact our operations” and that the company “must take steps now to prepare for these new economic realities.”
Zucker had asked each business unit to focus on reducing promotion expenses, cutting discretionary spending such as travel and entertainment and outside consultants and trimming staff costs. He also looked for savings by putting major purchases through the corporate sourcing department.
The laid off employees are to leave by January. Several have accepted buyouts and voluntary retirement packages.
The cuts came the same day Viacom Inc., owner of MTV Networks, BET Networks and Paramount Pictures, announced it would trim 850 jobs, or 7 percent of its work force, freeze some senior-level salaries and write down certain programming and other assets.
Viacom’s moves are expected to generate pretax savings of $200 million to $250 million next year. The company will take a restructuring charge of $400 million to $450 million, or 42 cents to 48 cents per share, before taxes in the current quarter, which ends Dec. 31.
Apple and Google Face UK Investigation Into Mobile Browser Dominance
Apple and Google aren't giving consumers a genuine choice of mobile web browsers, a British watchdog said Friday in a report that recommends they face an investigation under new U.K. digital rules taking effect next year.
The Competition and Markets Authority took aim at Apple, saying the iPhone maker's tactics hold back innovation by stopping rivals from giving users new features like faster webpage loading. Apple does this by restricting progressive web apps, which don't need to be downloaded from an app store and aren't subject to app store commissions, the report said.
"This technology is not able to fully take off on iOS devices," the watchdog said in a provisional report on its investigation into mobile browsers that it opened after an initial study concluded that Apple and Google effectively have a chokehold on "mobile ecosystems."
The CMA's report also found that Apple and Google manipulate the choices given to mobile phone users to make their own browsers "the clearest or easiest option."
And it said that the a revenue-sharing deal between the two U.S. Big Tech companies "significantly reduces their financial incentives" to compete in mobile browsers on Apple's iOS operating system for iPhones.
Both companies said they will "engage constructively" with the CMA.
Apple said it disagreed with the findings and said it was concerned that the recommendations would undermine user privacy and security.
Google said the openness of its Android mobile operating system "has helped to expand choice, reduce prices and democratize access to smartphones and apps" and that it's "committed to open platforms that empower consumers."
It's the latest move by regulators on both sides of the Atlantic to crack down on the... Read More