Roth & Rau announces "significant" closures and employee cuts 07. February 2012 | Industry & Suppliers, Markets & Trends | By: Becky Stuart Admitting that its photovoltaic business has been negatively affected by the weak market conditions in 2011, Roth & Rau has said it will close a number of its subsidiaries and "significantly" reduce its workforce by the end of the first half of 2012. Roth & Rau has made drastic cutbacks to its photovoltaics business.Roth & Rau AG At a meeting held yesterday, the German company pushed forward additional measures to rapidly and sustainably improve its earnings and financial strength. These include reducing its number of subsidiaries from 26 to 12, and cutting its workforce from 1,350 to under 1,150. Specifically those subsidiaries ... Continue reading →
The Nest thermostat (in cooling mode). Thermostat giant Honeywell has filed a lawsuit alleging patent infringement by the buzzy Silicon Valley startup Nest Labs, which makes a smart learning thermostat. Honeywell has spent decades developing thermostat technology and just last week the company told me it had developed and tested learning thermostat technology, like the kind Nest has introduced, but that it had decided not to commercialize the learning tech after weak user response. Honeywell says its patent infringement lawsuit, which was filed in the United States District Court for the District of Minnesota, applies to thermostat tech including: Natural Language Installer Set Up for Controller Controller Interface with Dynamic Schedule Display HVAC Controller Thermostat with Mechanical User Interface Thermostat with Offset Drive Power Stealing ... Continue reading →
Wed Feb 1, 2012 4:47pm EST (Reuters) - GT Advanced Technologies posted quarterly profit above analysts' estimates for the ninth time in a row, partly helped by better performance at its polysilicon segment, but it cut the upper end of its full-year earnings outlook. The U.S. solar and LED equipment maker now expects to earn $1.45 to $1.60 per share on revenue of $950 million to $1.05 billion in 2012.Analysts, on average, were expecting earnings of $1.50 per share on revenue of $995.3 million, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.GT Advanced, previously known as GT Solar, posted a net profit of $15.3 million, or 12 cents per share, down from $63.6 million, or 46 cents per share, a year ago.GT Advanced, which caters to solar and ... Continue reading →