Financial problems grow, Flip Cameras no more & the top 100 tech businesses announced

The number of UK firms showing signs of serious financial problems is growing as customers tighten their belts, says a report produced by corporate turnaround specialists Begbies Traynor, published by the BBC today. The report shows a 15% rise in firms suffering “significant” or “critical” financial distress in the first quarter of 2011 over last year.

Cisco to close Flip camera unit as smartphones swallow its market The networking and router company Cisco is shutting down the consumer-oriented Flip camera business that it bought for $590m in 2009. The move will mean the loss of 550 jobs worldwide. The Guardian reports the shutdown, announced on Tuesday afternoon is part of a widespread reorganisation as the company attempts to rejig its business. Flip’s devices, hugely popular with the SME market, were hampered because while they were the same size as a smartphone, they could not offer a number of features that smartphones or high-end “feature phones” could, such as uploads to online sites; but they didn’t offer other features either such as Wi-Fi connectivity 
Deborah Meaden’s top tips for finding a new job As savings across business, thousands of employees will be looking for new jobs this year. Deborah Meaden joins the BBC Newsnight’s Job Market Mentors, gives her top tips on making the transition.

The Tech100 announced The Daily Telegraph announced their chart of the top 100 start-ups. They claim that the ‘Start-Up 100 is an attempt to create the most authoritative and trustworthy ranking of promising technology start-ups in Europe’. The competition was supported by Orrick, Silicon Valley Bank and Microsoft BizSpark. In association with TechCrunch Europe. 

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