Looks like Symyx has started another round of Layoffs. Maybe this is why the stock is up.

Seems like there are still companies that are rewarding there executives with huge salaries while cutting jobs and talent. I have to wonder if this "isolated" incident doesn't speak more toward this trend to large salaries for the executives even while companies are cutting back and even larger while they grow. I believe that the tides are turning, we here some "popular" thought trending toward reigning in salaries. It is the board we should blame, as well as those who take and take and take. As I ask about this company in the valley, they are very well known for extremely good technical people, once they had many of them, now they have few. They are more known these day's for being poorly managed, from top to bottom.

Of course this also speaks to the change in focus; Symyx is no longer a materials research company with software to support it. It is a software company with the legacy of once doing research. It is not a tools company selling devices that are developed from cutting edge research; it is a tools company that is selling based on the legacy of cutting edge research.

Don't get me wrong, there are still talented individuals doing materials research work there, but they are in the minority, next to software.

As a shareholder, what do I want to see? Well I would like the execs to take a pay cut and suspend there bonus, this is how I remember companies operating in the past. I would like it to either spin off the software side, or labs/tools side. Or just shut down labs and tools all together. The argument has always been, it will cost a company much more money to do this type of research internally because they don't have the multidisciplinary group and culture internally to do it. Well I think we shareholders have to wake up and realize Symyx no longer has this either