John Cook reports on more layoffs at Rhapsody, a RealNetwork unit based here in Seattle. Fortunately, there's good tech news today too: a Brazilian tech company called Spring Networks is setting up shop in the city, and will be hiring some 35 employees. The Southlake is looking at possible upsides to the bored tunnel viaduct replacement option. West Seattle Blog has more updates on the Junction shooting, including photos of the memorial set up at the site. And over at Sound Transit Blog, there's a list of the major Sound Transit Express changes coming up in 2009. more ›

So is January 15, 2009, Microsoft's Black Thursday? Something called Fudzilla is claiming they have Microsoft staff tipping them to a cut of 15,000 employees (so long, MSN), which is about 17 percent of Microsoft's 90,000 total. This isn't coming from nowhere: apparently Microsoft was advised to make a 10 percent cutback in staff to show investors that people's livelihoods weren't as important as a short-term, 10 percent earnings gain. Ever since, the FUD has been swirling. Closer to home, Mini Microsoft has the complete roundup of layoff leaks, rumors, and innuendo, from "nothing's happening," to "it's a re-org," to "hey, if you work on Office, you're golden." more ›

Larry McFadden and John Rothnie, managers at the Port of Seattle, have resigned from their positions after a special investigation into the Port's activities found ten provable instances of fraud. According to the P-I's sources, Port CEO Tay Yoshitani had planned to fire the two men as part of his disciplinary response to the investigation's findings, but they chose to leave under their own will before Yoshitani could announce his intentions. more ›

At long last, struggling Washington Mutual acceded to the inevitable and showed CEO Kerry Killinger the door. Thanks to our local newspapers' canny investments in business coverage, we're hearing about immensely important local news the day after the Wall Street Journal reported on Killinger's exit. The Seattle Times is running an AP story, and the P-I made its whole business staff (i.e., Bill Virgin) come in over the weekend and write something up. The Times did get a special from Jon Talton that recaps the WaMu/Killinger situation, and it's worth reading. If incoming head Alan Fishman's job is to work on WaMu's curb appeal, Seattle may be about to take a hard hit. more ›

KING 5 and the AP are reporting the M's have fired much-debated General Manager Bill Bavasi. Apparently, the booing worked. Bavasi has been replaced by Lee Pelekoudas, who will be acting on an interim basis, while a GM search is conducted. more ›