Even Google scales back on holiday fun - washingtonpost.com

I got this information from Washington Post. High-tech companies are scaling down. But what is going to happen in the Automobile and Banking industries? Do we still have GM, Ford and Chrysler after 2009?

"With the sharp stock-market decline for Citigroup rapidly becoming a full-blown crisis of confidence, the company’s executives on Friday entered into talks with federal officials about how to stabilize the struggling financial giant," writes New York Times.

That's one of the newest and most visible victims of the financial crisis. Nevertheless, what happens in the high-tech market? How vulnerable are the most innovative industries? Do they have the power to swim against the trends? It looks like that isn't the case.

Even Google scales back on holiday fun - washingtonpost.com: "SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Internet search giant Google Inc is known for hosting the most extravagant holiday parties in Silicon Valley, often drawing crowds of over 10,000 and prompting some employees to post ads for party dates on classifieds Website Craigslist.

But even Google has decided to scale back its holiday celebrations this year due to a global economic downturn and an ever-expanding workforce that had grown to 20,000 in October, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Silicon Valley has few reasons to celebrate this year as companies, including Hewlett Packard Co, Yahoo Inc, Sun Microsystems Inc and Applied Materials Inc, have cut over 140,000 jobs in the last few months because of the bleak economy, according to Challenger, Gray and Christmas consulting group.
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Google has fared better than most tech companies, but departments at the Internet company will have smaller events this year to encourage camaraderie between employees and celebrate more economically, said the source. Team holiday activities will include spending an afternoon volunteering followed by evening social activities such as dinner parties and museum outings in San Francisco."