5 Companies That Had A Rough Week

The Week Ending Feb. 23

Topping this week's roundup of those having a rough week are smartphone manufacturers overall – and Samsung and Apple in particular – for the first decline ever in global smartphone sales.

Also making the list this week are data center solution provider QTS for coming under fire from one of its biggest shareholders; AMD for facing a growing number of class-action lawsuits over the Spectre vulnerability; The Los Angeles Times, whose website was the victim of a cryptojacking attack; and HTC employees in the U.S. who have been hit with layoffs.

Not everyone in the IT industry was having a rough go of it this week. For a rundown of companies that made smart decisions, executed savvy strategic moves – or just had good luck – check out this week's Five Companies That Came To Win roundup.

Worldwide Smartphone Sales Record First-Ever Decline

It was a rough week for leading smartphone manufacturers, who got word this week that global sales of smartphones dropped 5.6 percent in the fourth quarter of 2017 compared to the fourth quarter of 2016, according to market researcher Gartner.

Smartphone sales to end users in the most recent quarter totaled only 407.8 million units versus 432.1 million units one year earlier. That marked the first sales decline since Gartner began tracking them in 2004.

The report was particularly tough for market leaders Samsung and Apple, No. 1 and 2, respectively, which saw their unit sales decline in the quarter. Samsung's sales dropped to 74.0 million units from 76.8 million units a year earlier, while Apple's sales fell to 73.2 million units from 77.0 million units.

Chinese manufacturers Huawei and Xiaomi were the only top-5 smartphone manufacturers that enjoyed increased unit sales in the quarter. All five of the top manufacturers, including Samsung and Apple, did increase their shares of the global smartphone market at the expense of second-tier manufacturers, however.

Data Center Solution Provider QTS Faces Pressure From Major Investor To Sell

A major investor in QTS Realty Trust is taking the data center solution provider's management to task for its financial performance and is pushing the company to consider putting itself up for sale.

Land and Buildings Investment Management, which describes itself as a "significant" investor in QTS, outlined the criticisms of Overland, Kan.-based QTS in a letter to investors.

The public censure follows a sharp 23 percent decline in QTS' stock price Wednesday, one day after the company announced a shake-up of its executive management team and plans to realign its business, narrowing the scope of its cloud and MSP businesses to focus on hyper-scale and hybrid co-location services.

The letter, from Jonathan Litt, Land and Buildings' founder and chief investment officer, suggested that QTS pursue "public to public M&A" – selling the company – as an option.

AMD Faces Growing Number Of Lawsuits Relating To Spectre Vulnerability

At least four separate lawsuits have been filed against AMD in U.S. District Court in San Jose, Calif., charging that the chipmaker mishandled its response to the Spectre vulnerability problem that has roiled the industry since the start of the year.

The lawsuits allege violations ranging from securities fraud to breach of warranty, unfair competition and negligence, according to a report this week on The Register website.

Three of the class-action lawsuits seek damages on behalf of customers that bought computers and devices with AMD processors with the Spectre exploit before news of the design vulnerability became public. The suits maintain that AMD knew about the problem, but failed to warn customers or issue fixes, according to The Register report.

The fourth lawsuit seeks damages on behalf of AMD shareholders who may have suffered financial losses because of the Spectre problem.

LA Times Website Hit With Cryptojacking Attack

Researchers discovered cryptojacking code hidden on a Los Angeles Times website page that was harnessing visitors' CPUs to mine cryptocurrency.

The cryptojacking code was embedded in the LA Times' interactive Homicide Report webpage, according to a story on the Threatpost website. The cryptominer code, which has been removed from the web page, was mining Monero cryptocurrency by tapping into the CPU processing power of site visitors' computers, phones and tablets.

The attack was discovered this week by Troy Mursch, a security researcher at Bad Packets Report, Threatpost said.

HTC U.S. Staff Hit With Layoffs As Company Merges Smartphone And VR Divisions

Taiwan-based smartphone maker HTC has laid off a large portion of its U.S. team, leaving only employees for HTC Global in its U.S. office, according to a Digital Trends report.

The report said it was unclear just how many employees were dismissed, but quoted sources as saying the numbers were somewhere between a few dozen employees to as many as 100.

An HTC spokesperson told Digital Trends that HTC has restructured its North America smartphone business and combined its smartphone and VR divisions, resulting in some employee reductions.

HTC has struggled to gain ground in the U.S. market and Digital Trends suggested the cutbacks could signal a shift away from the U.S. The news comes one week after Chailin Chang, HTC president of smartphone and connected devices, resigned from the company.