I would refer to this as Silicon Valley’s doomed trajectory… and what a tragic end… from boom to doom!
Just ten days after Claire Cain Miller wrote an article for International Herald Tribune, about how CEOs of companies are blogging about “downsizing”, “pink slips” and “staff cuts”, especially in Silicon Valley, I read about Sid Agrawal (56), Indian-American CEO and Director of a semi-conductor company – SiPort Inc., who was gunned down last Friday, by Jing Hua Wu (47), in Santa Clara, California.
A sad and shocking incident no doubt; what is further interesting is that the man shot down was an electrical engineer, graduate of a leading institute in India – IIT, Kanpur; the assailant, Jing Hua Wu, was also a product test engineer, and had been let go by the company as recently as Friday morning. Two other victims at SiPort are Marilyn Lewis (67), Head of Human Resources, and Brian Pugh, (47), VP (Operations).
Although Jing was arrested on Saturday morning from his neighborhood in Mountain View, the Santa Clara Police Chief conceded that “Genuine fear in the community”, is the direct outcome of this triple homicide. Numerous people in Silicon Valley are facing job cuts due to the global economic meltdown.
What amazes me, is that several issues related to the Debt Trap and credit crunch and job cuts are being covered by The New York Times. Why this silence on such grave a matter. Is this incident not of consequence in the national context? Where did I first read about this incident? It was in the International Business Pages of India’s Economic Times, s’il vous plait! In case, anyone thinks this is sensationalizing a story, I’m sorry, that’s not my motive. Oh yes, I do see a tiny, vague snippet in Newsday.
We know already, that Sun Microsystems, Intel, Yahoo, eBay, and numerous others – including start-ups and Silicon Valley giants – are all downsizing. Is this the shape of things to come? Out there on the West Coast, it seems to be not quite unlike the “downtown to doom-town” syndrome experienced by New Yorkers in Manhattan. Will economic downturn drive people to their doom?
Words-n-Motion 