Toshiba's decision to no longer develop, make or market high-definition HD DVD players and recorders will mean consumers can start feeling more confident about buying the victorious rival technology — a Blu-ray disc player.

The decision was relatively quick, coming just several years after the competing technologies arrived.

In the last video format battle, between VHS, backed by Matsushita, and Sony's Betamax in the 1980s, it took a decade before Sony stopped making new Betamax products.

Nishida, who stressed HD DVD was a good technology, tried to assure the estimated 1 million customers, including some 600,000 in North America, who already bought HD DVD machines, by promising that Toshiba will continue to provide product support for the technology.

Neither Sony or Matsushita would disclose the global sales numbers for Blu-ray machines. But the shift in Blu-ray's favor became more decisive during the critical holiday shopping season.

Nishida voluntarily brought up the possibility of class-action lawsuits in the U.S. as he fielded questions from reporters, acknowledging that the idea of disgruntled HD DVD owners had occurred to him.

Class-action lawsuits are fairly rare in Japan, and owners in Japan of HD DVD machines total just 30,000. Nishida denied the company shared in any liability as it had no say in the format of future movies.

Although the format defeat is an embarrassment to Toshiba's image, the quick exit is expected to lessen the potential damage in losses from HD DVD operations.

Goldman Sachs has said pulling out would improve Toshiba's profitability between $370 million and $460 million a year.

Toshiba quits HD DVD business

Even as IBM Corp. reports record profits, thousands of its U.S. employees are staring at pay cuts.

It's the result of IBM's response to a lawsuit in which the company was accused of illegally withholding overtime pay from some technical employees. IBM settled the case for $65 million in 2006 and has now decided that it needs to reclassify 7,600 technical-support workers as eligible for overtime.

But their underlying salary — the base pay they earn for their first 40 hours of work each week — will be cut 15 percent to compensate.

The decision on overtime stems from the settlement of a federal class-action lawsuit in San Francisco in which 32,000 technical workers accused IBM of illegally withholding overtime pay.

IBM had considered the employees highly skilled professionals exempt from overtime rules as defined in the Fair Labor Standards Act. The plaintiffs alleged that they were not executive decision-makers or creative types who can be ineligible for overtime.

Though that case was settled late in 2006, McNeese said IBM needed until now to determine how to comply with federal overtime laws. "We still think it's ambiguous," he said.

IBM riles employees with base pay cuts - Yahoo News

After seven months as chief executive, Yahoo Inc. co-founder Jerry Yang has concluded hundreds of employees will have to be fired to help the slumping Internet icon recover from years of misguided management.

The Sunnyvale-based company's biggest purge since the dot-com bust most likely will be announced next week ...

Securities analysts are betting Yahoo will trim its 14,000-employee payroll by about 5 percent — or 700 workers. If that many people are dumped, Yahoo could save about $100 million ...

In a statement, Yahoo said it is embarking on a muliti-year transformation aimed at enriching long-term shareholders.

Yahoo poised to lay off hundreds - Yahoo! News