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Mid-day Update

PODCAST: Greece could exit eurozone soon, Yahoo CEO resigns

Chau Tu May 14, 2012
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Mid-day Update

PODCAST: Greece could exit eurozone soon, Yahoo CEO resigns

Chau Tu May 14, 2012
HTML EMBED:
COPY

There’s continued turmoil coming out of Europe, as open discussions rise about Greece exiting the eurozone. The country looks to possibly face new elections, because left-wing group Syriza is refusing to form a government with pro-austerity groups. If elections go through, Syriza could get even more votes — and that could up-end the promises the country made to cut budgets in return for bailout money. Contagion could already be spreading to other countries.

Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson resigned this weekend; he reportedly told the board he has thyroid cancer, though he had also been under fire for having a phony computer science degree on his resume. This development is the work of what many call an ‘activist’ investor.

There are also shifts at the top at the electronics and appliance chain store, Best Buy. There’s news today the founder and chairman of the board, Richard Schultz, is stepping down. Best Buy’s CEO Brian Dunn was forced out about a month ago. Turns out, the chairman didn’t tell the board that he knew his CEO had violated policy by having an “extremely close personal relationship” with a female employee.

Facebook is set to go public this week, which is going to create some overnight billionaires. One of them is Eduardo Saverin, who helped start the company. But news recently came out that Saverin has renounced his U.S. citizenship, meaning he will apparently avoid about $600 million in taxes on his new wealth. His spokesman says Saverin found it more “practical” to become a resident of Singapore.

In the novel “Player Piano,” Kurt Vonnegut talked about “lights-out manufacturing” — no humans and all robots; they wouldn’t even need to keep lights on at the factory.  Now, 60 years later comes word that you could soon be holding a sophisticated piece of consumer electronics manufactured only by robots. That’s the plan at Canon, the Japanese digital camera company, maybe as early as 2015. It’s a bid to combat competition from countries with cheaper labor, but Canon insists all these robots will not mean job cuts.

The governor of California will unveil a new spending plan today after disclosing over the weekend that California’s budget deficit has jumped to $16 billion, in part because lawsuits and federal requirements have blocked some spending cuts.

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