finance

After being laid off for the third time, Joyce Mueller decided shed had enough.

As a United Airlines customer service and sales rep for 21 years, Mueller, of Schaumburg, survived 9/11 and the company's bankruptcy. But when her job was outsourced to the Philippines, she vowed that was the end of being bounced around by an up-and-down industry.

"I can't keep going back and getting laid off again," she said. "Its too hard to go forward with your life."

It's been a grim month for Nuclear Power, always a contentious issue for greens, power from the atom has taken two steps back as South African utility Eskom announce plans to cancel their tendering process for new nuclear plant in South Africa.

Yahoo has officially opened its platform to developers. It's all part of the search company's vision for a more open Yahoo that leverages outside innovation, unlocks the power of social networking, and meshes the Yahoo experience with other sites to bring viewers the best of the Web.

That's the vision. And Yahoo has taken one more step toward it by making its tools and data available to developers to build applications for a more customized network.

Vodafone announced the reorganization of its business structure and top management Tuesday, splitting in two its emerging-markets division and appointing a new boss for Europe.

Vodafone, the world's largest mobile phone operator by revenue, said it had appointed Michael Combes, the former finance director of France Telecom, as the new chief executive for Europe and said Paul Donovan, chief executive of the emerging-markets division, would leave.

Many large companies, especially those in the financial services, utilities and telecommunications industries, have cut their technology budgets this year because of the economic slowdown.

In a report released Tuesday, Forrester Research Inc. found that 43 percent of large U.S. and European businesses it surveyed have cut their overall spending on technology products and services in 2008. Some companies, meanwhile, have put discretionary spending on hold and others are planning to negotiate lower rates for information-technology services.

Jane Perlez in the New York Times:

Nokia expects the mobile phone industry to weather any global economic slowdown because the devices have become such a part of people's lives, the company's finance chief said Thursday.

Nokia, the world's top cell phone maker, saw its shares rise 8 percent Thursday after posting better-than expected results for the second quarter and upgrading its forecast for the global handset market.

"With half a year visibility, we're able to say growth will be 10 percent or more," Nokia's Chief Financial Officer Rick Simonson told The Associated Press.