Siemens board to forego pay hike, set up fund for BenQ's German employees
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Following the public outcry over the collapse of the German arm of mobile telephone maker BenQ and fierce political pressure, Siemens has said its management would forego planned pay rises of up to 30 percent and set up a fund to help BenQ's German employees instead.
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BenQ Mobile plans to file for bankruptcy protection in Germany after its Taiwanese parent decided to stop investing in the money-losing operation, the mobile phone maker said Thursday.
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BELLEVUE, Wash.  - Microsoft Corp. MSFT.O  shareholders on Tuesday approved changes to its stock-based  employee compensation plans that would maintain the value of  stock options and awards, allowing the software giant to go  forward with a planned $3-per-share special dividend.
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Mr Pierer received cash compensation of 3.56m plus stock-based compensation valued at 1.08m, Siemens has revealed in its annual report for the financial year that ended in September.
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The head of the German central bank warned against steep pay rises in 2008, as the Social Democrat party stepped up calls for a national minimum wage in comments to be published Sunday.
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Vector will float up to 24.9 per cent of its shares on the stock exchange &quot;later rather than earlier&quot; in the next year to help pay for its takeover bid for NGC.
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The German trade union IG Metall said that it would demand a pay increase of 6.5 percent in wage talks expected to begin soon, setting the stage for a clash with employers. âThe metal and engineering industries can easily cope with and finance an increase of 6.5 percent,â IG Metallâs head, JÃ¼rgen Peters, left, said in a statement issued after a union board meeting. âItâs the employersâ turn in 2007.â Mr. Peters said IG Metall was expecting productivity gains of 1.8 percent for the economy as a whole and inflation of 2.3 percent this year, matching the government estimate. Productivity in the engineering and metal industries, however, was expected to rise more strongly, by 4.5 percent to 5.5 percent. Dieter Hundt, head of the Confederation of German Employersâ Associations, said in a statement that a 6.5 percent wage increase would hurt the economy and undermine recovery of the sector, which led to the creation of 30,000 jobs last year.
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Taiwan's BenQ, which unsuccessfully took over Siemens' mobile phone business, has returned, but mobile phones will play a much smaller role, its executives say.
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German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said German electronics giant Siemens must take responsibility for 3,000 of its former workers who are set to lose their jobs.
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Siemens bought a 16 percent stake from a private investor in November and launched a bid of 55 euros ($72.05) a share for the remaining shares.
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(InfoWorld) - BenQ Mobile plans to file for bankruptcy protection in Germany after its Taiwanese parent decided to stop investing in the money-losing operation, the mobile phone maker said Thursday. Taiwan's BenQ Corp., which will continue to develop and market BenQ-Siemens brand mobile phones, said it made the decision because it saw no end to the losses after already sinking over â¬600 million ($761.7 million) into the unit. "We made this painful decision after losses continued to pile up despite our best efforts," said K.Y. Lee, chairman of BenQ, at a news conference in Taipei. BenQ said the bankruptcy filing should not affect customers since the parent company will continue to develop, manufacture, and sell BenQ-Siemens handsets from Asia. The decision comes almost a year after BenQÂ took over the mobile phone businessÂ from Siemens, and leaves the fate of 3,000 German workers at BenQ Mobile in doubt. It also highlights the difficulty of turning around a sinking business. Under Siemens, the handset division had been losing market share. The German company even paid BenQ â¬250 million to take the ailing division off its hands. BenQ has posted losses for the three financial quarters that have passed since it acquired BenQ Mobile. Analysts have blamed stiff competition in the mobile phone industry for the troubles many handset makers have faced this year. Industry leaders Nokia and Motorola have both gained market share this year, mainly at the expense of smaller rivals, according to market researcher Gartner. BenQ's share of the handset market dropped to 3.2 percent in the second quarter, from 4.8 percent the same time last year, according to Gartner. Meanwhile, Nokia's share rose to 33.6 percent from 31.6 percent, and Motorola's increased to 21.9 percent from 17.7 percent. If BenQ Mobile can return to financial health as it restructures under the protection of the German government, it could return to the BenQ family of companies, BenQ said. BenQ Mobile's headquarters in Munich, as well as sites in Kamp-Lintfort and Bocholt in North-Rhine-Westphalia will be directly affected by the decision, while operations in Brazil will undergo a financial review. The Taiwanese company had already taken several steps to reduce costs and turn BenQ Mobile around, includingÂ laying offÂ over 500 workers earlier this year in Germany, and announcing a plan toÂ shut down mobile phone productionÂ in Taiwan. The company also announced several measures intended to streamline its operations, including a plan toÂ spin offÂ its non-handset manufacturing business.ADVERTISEMENTMAKE SOA REAL WITH IBM WEBSPHERE PODCASTStreamline processes and maximize efficiency within a proven service oriented architecture. Take back control of your business processes with IBM WebSphere.
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German electronics giant Siemens said it planned to cut 1,350 jobs in its new Siemens Com division, which covers the group's activities in fixed-line and mobile communications.
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Striking train drivers brought parts of Germany's rail network to a standstill on Tuesday, backing their demands for a large pay increase with a walkout that affected tens of thousands of commuters.
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At its meeting on December 14, 2006 Technip's  (Paris:TEC) (NYSE:TKP) (ISIN:FR0000131708) Board of Directors made the  following decisions:  to pay in advance part of the 2006 dividend, in the amount of 0.50  euros per share.
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German engineering giant Siemens said it had suspended a number of employees in the ongoing corruption probe as evidence appeared to harden that they might have been involved in possible wrongdoing.
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Texas Instruments Inc  said on Friday that its board had approved an additional $5 billion share buyback, and the company plans to raise its quarterly cash dividend by 25 percent.
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Siemens AG  has extended  its amnesty offer to employees in connection with a probe into  a corruption scandal until the end of February, the company  said on Thursday.