Our weekly snapshot of who’s hiring and who’s firing across the IT landscape.
Hiring
Six tech companies have formed a nanotechnology hub in upstate New York, which will create 1,000 high-tech jobs. The six companies that are part of the new center at the SUNY Institute of Technology near Utica, N.Y., include Advanced Nanotechnology Solutions, SEMATECH, Atotech, IBM, Lam Research and Tokyo Electron. [Dice News]
General Electric, driven by greater-than-expected sales, plans to hire more programmers and engineers than it had anticipated at its software development center in San Ramon, Calif. The company now expects to bring on a total of 800 people to work on programs that compile and analyze data from jet engines, locomotives and wind turbines, rather than the 400 people it was initially planning to hire. [Dice News] Cloud-based donor-management software maker
Bloomerang plans to expand its operations and add 70 jobs by 2023. The Indiana-based company will hire project managers, as well as IT and development professionals. [Dice News]
NutraClick, a nutritional supplement maker, is expanding its office space and nearly doubling its staff in Boston by adding 30 more workers in engineering, sales, marketing and product development. The company is also moving into a new 22,000-square foot headquarters in the city. [Dice News]
Layoffs
Broadcom is initiating widespread layoffs from its LTE and modem design teams both in the U.S. and overseas, sources familiar with the situation told Dice News. The layoffs, which are expected to affect at least several hundred workers, come just days after the company closed a $164 million deal to acquire the LTE-related assets of Japan-based Renesas Electronics. [Dice News]
Cisco is laying off 1,022 workers at its San Jose campus on Friday, Oct. 18, according to the company's notice to the State of California. The layoffs are part of its workforce reduction of 4,000 people that was announced in August and slated to occur in the current quarter. [Dice News]
Toshiba America Information Systems plans to lay off 56 workers at its Irvine, Calif., headquarters on Nov. 5. The layoffs in some ways aren’t surprising following Toshiba Corp.’s weaker than expected performance in its fiscal first quarter and widening losses in its PC and television businesses. [Dice News]
BlackBerry has begun its massive layoffs, less than a month after they were announced. The Waterloo, Ontario, smartphone maker cut 300 employees of the 4,500 it ultimately plans to let go. Overall BlackBerry's layoffs will account for 40 percent of its workforce. Personal computer maker
Lenovo has cut a "small number" of workers at its U.S. headquarters in Morrisville, N.C. The undisclosed number of cuts is reportedly part of the realignment the company unveiled in May to continue to invest in what it calls its “PC Plus strategy.” [Dice News]
Zynga may see staff reductions as it heads into its Oct. 24 earnings, according to a prediction by financial analyst Eric Jackson. He notes the layoffs could come as the Farmville game maker seeks to compete against Candy Crush game maker King and its leaner staff of approximately 600 people, compared with Zynga's 2,300 employees. [Wall Street CheatSheet]
Is there hiring or firing going on at your company? Email what you know — in confidence, of course — to tips @ dice.com. (And remember, you probably don’t want to send it from your company email address.) 
