No date has been set for the store closures, but individual stores will be closing in the next four to six weeks. Adding in the other closures, HMV will be left with just over 100 stores in the U.K. The individual stores to be closed have been announced:

Ashford, Basildon, Bolton, Cheltenham, East Kilbride, Enfield, Folkestone, Glasgow Argyle, Gloucester, Grimsby, Hatfield Galleria, Heathrow T5 Departure Level, Heathrow Terminal 1, Heathrow Terminal 3, Heathrow Terminal 4, Hemel Hempstead, High Wycombe, Isle of Wight, Lancaster, Leadenhall, Mansfield, Middlesbrough, Newbury, Newcastle Silverlink, Newport, Nuneaton, Redditch, Salisbury, Scarborough, Southport, Stafford, Staines, Stockport, Swindon, Taunton, Torquay, Woking.

Word of the extra closures comes via Deloitte, which was chosen to administrate HMV in Jaunary after the company failed to come to terms with its creditors. Administrators appointed by Deloitte are currently restructuring the retailer for a possible sale.

“As part of our ongoing review of HMV’s financial position, we have undertaken a further review of the store portfolio and have identified an additional 37 stores for closure,” said Nick Edwards, joint administrator of HMV. “This step has been taken in order to enhance the prospects of the restructured business continuing as a going concern. Together with the previously identified 66 closures, this restructuring will result in a residual portfolio of some 116 stores.

“We are extremely grateful to the staff for their continued strong support and commitment during an understandably difficult period. All other key stakeholders including suppliers and landlords remain supportive and we appreciate their ongoing assistance.”

Today, Deloitte, the firm hired to oversee HMV’s administration, announced that 66 HMV stores will be closing throughout the U.K. These stores collectively have 930 employees, and no plans to relocate them were revealed. HMV currently has 220 stores in the U.K.

This step has been taken in order to enhance the prospects of securing the business’ future as a going concern,” said Nick Edwards, joint administrator of HMV. “We continue to receive strong support from staff and are extremely grateful to them for their commitment during an understandably difficult period. All other key stakeholders remain very supportive and I continue to be hopeful of securing a future for the restructured business.”

No date has been set for the closure of the stores, but they are expected to shut down sometime in the next two months. Below is the list of stores that will be closing. Consumers near these stores would be well-served to keep an eye on them to watch for closeout sales.

Ashton-under-Lyne, Ballymena, Barnsley, Bayswater, Belfast Boucher Road, Belfast Forestside, Bexleyheath, Birkenhead, Birmingham Fort, Blackburn, Boston, Bournemouth Castlepoint, Bracknell, Burton-upon-Trent, Camberley, Chesterfield, Coleraine, Craigavon, Croydon Centrale, Derry, Dumfries, Durham, Edinburgh Fort, Edinburgh Gyle Centre, Edinburgh Ocean, Edinburgh Princes Street, Edinburgh St James, Falkirk, Fulham, Glasgow – Fort, Glasgow – Silverburn, Glasgow Braehead, Huddersfield, Kirkcaldy, Leamington Spa, Leeds White Rose, Lisburn, Loughborough, Luton, Manchester 90, Moorgate, Newry, Newtonabbey, Orpington, Rochdale, Scunthorpe, South Shields, Speke Park, St Albans, St Helens, Stockton-on-Tees, Tamworth, Teesside, Telford, Trocadero, Wakefield, Walsall, Walton-on-Thames, Wandsworth, Warrington, Watford, Wellingborough, Wigan, Wood Green, Workington, Wrexham.

Deloitte, the firm administering Blockbuster, has announced that 160 Blockbuster stores in the U.K. will be closing. The possibility of more store closing announcements in the near future was not ruled out.

“Having reviewed the portfolio with management, the store closure plan is an inevitable consequence of having to restructure the Company to a profitable core which is capable of being sold,” said Lee Manning joint administrator of Blockbuster U.K at Deloitte. “We would like to thank the company’s employees for their support and professionalism during this difficult time. We are also grateful to the customers for their continued support.”

The closings mean around 1,000 Blockbuster employees will soon be out of work or shuffled to other stores. The stores won’t close immediately, however, and a hotline has been put in place to help employees find other work.

In the meantime, the closing stores will remain open for business. Customers will get to enjoy “closing down promotions” as the stores close.

Competition from online retailers and the rise of streaming digital media are causing increasing difficulties for physical retailers. British retailers HMV and Game Group have also entered administration within the past year.

Deloitte claims that Blockbuster U.K.’s “core” business is still solid. A buyer for the company’s 528 stores across the U.K. will be sought. Blockbuster U.K. currently employs 4190 people.

Unlike HMV, which suspended trading of its stock on the London Stock Exchange, Blockbuster stock will continue to trade normally. Deloitte also made a point to assure customers that all gift cards will be honored.

“In recent years Blockbuster has faced increased competition from internet-based providers along with the shift to digital streaming of movies and games,” said Lee Manning, a Deloitte partner and one of the people assigned to jointly administer Blockbuster U.K. “We are working closely with suppliers and employees to ensure the business has the best possible platform to secure a sale, preserve jobs and generate as much value as possible for all creditors.”

Blockbuster U.K. is just another in a line of British retailers of physical media to run into financial trouble. In addition to HMV, GameStop closed its stores in the U.K. last year and Game Group entered administration in March of last year. These failures are almost certainly a sign of things to come in the U.S. and the rest of the world, as media consumption shifts from physical discs to downloadable and streaming options.

HMV has released an official statement regarding the key events:

On 13 December 2012, the Company announced that as a result of current market trading conditions, the Company faced material uncertainties and that it was probable that the Group would not comply with its banking covenants at the end of January 2013. The Company also stated that it was in discussions with its banks.

Since that date, the Company has continued the discussions with its banks and other key stakeholders to remedy the imminent covenant breach. However, the Board regrets to announce that it has been unable to reach a position where it feels able to continue to trade outside of insolvency protection, and in the circumstances therefore intends to file notice to appoint administrators to the Company and certain of its subsidiaries with immediate effect.

The Directors of the Company understand that it is the intention of the administrators, once appointed, to continue to trade whilst they seek a purchaser for the business.

It is proposed that Nick Edwards, Neville Kahn and Rob Harding, partners of Deloitte LLP, will be appointed as the administrators of the Company and certain of its subsidiaries.

The Company’s ordinary shares will be suspended from trading on the London Stock Exchange with immediate effect.

The situation is similar to that faced by Game Group in March of last year. Game entered administration and closed hundreds of stores throughout the U.K.

Physical retailers of electronics goods, such as Best Buy, have been seeing declining sales in the face of the growing internet retailers and streaming video services. There are also rumors that entertainment companies will be increasing the pressure on the market for used physical media using digital rights management (DRM) and other tactics.

Eurocom issued a statement to Eurogamer, revealing that the company was not able to secure new development contracts in time to pay its employees. From the statement:

Since 2008, there has been a steep decline in the sales of Console and PC games, which has led to a severe contraction in the number of new games being commissioned from global publishers of entertainment software. The company has also faced intense competition from developers in countries with lower costs or those subsidised with generous games tax credits…

…The Directors of Eurocom would like to offer their heartfelt thanks to all their staff that have been made redundant at this difficult time, and show their appreciation of all of their hard work in consistently delivering exceptional games.

“Exceptional” may be a bit hyperbolic. In its 24 years, Eurocom was best known for porting games to various consoles, as well as developing numerous movie and brand tie-in games. Most recently the company developed the GoldenEye 007 remakes for consoles, Disney Universe, and 007 Legends.

Eurocom is correct that video game development is becoming a much more competitive industry. No matter how many tax credits studios in Sweden or Poland get, however, the game quality will always play a central role in the success of developers.

That’s the message of Matthew Haughey, who recently discussed the issue on his blog fortuitous.  Yet Haughey warns admin types about getting too human – thou shalt not become irrational, conceited, or vindictive, in other words.  Try bouncing your ideas off other moderators as a sort of “sanity check” before unleashing any wrath.

If you’re lacking moderators, find some alternative way to get the opinions of others and spread the workload.  In terms of keeping things clean, Haughey recommends “a simple user flagging system . . . .  It’s a basic mechanism that gives the community a policing outlet, but beyond the simple act of empowering users to help you moderate a large site, if you build the right toolset you can save yourself loads of time and stress moderating content.”

Community members can also help with site design issues – after all, they’re likely to have something invested in the place, as well.  Haughey writes, “When I have to make a tough decision, I mention it in a new thread and get the members’ reactions and often tailor the final result based on their feedback.”

Haughey’s post has some other helpful tips, but those are the highlights.  For more views on how to run an online community, you might turn to Steve Yelvington – by reading his article on the matter, you actually get to hear both his opinion and that of OSTG’s Robin Miller.

It’s not exactly been a banner year for the Windows brand. Microsoft released Vista in early 2007 only to be met with a lukewarm reception from both the enterprise and personal computing markets. Dell is also ramping up efforts to offer a Linux alternative to Windows for customers purchasing new computers from the store.

It’s not just the private sector, however, that is displaying hesitancy to upgrade to Windows Vista. Government agencies such as the Federal Aviation Administration have publicly acknowledged the fact that finding alternatives to Microsoft products, such as Linux-based operating systems and Google’s Premier Apps office suite, is becoming a higher priority.

The FAAs efforts in this regard seemed to have worked their way up the pipeline, as now the Department of Transportation, the entity under which the FAA is affiliated, has officially prohibiting upgrades to Windows Vista, as is the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

Here’s an excerpt from a January DOT memo documenting the rational behind such a decision:

Based on our initial analysis (from internal recommendations and analysis provided by Gartner Group), there appears to be no compelling technical or business case for upgrading to these new Microsoft products. Furthermore, there appears to be specific reasons not to upgrade including:

·    The cost of performing the upgrade (hardware/software upgrades, application upgrades, labor for planning and implementation, etc.)

·    Previous version compatibility concerns regarding Office 2007 suite components (primarily Word)

·    The protracted FY07 Continuing Resolution (CR) which limits available funding

·    The more to the new Headquarters DOT building that would be competing with the same IT expertise required to support the migration to any of these products

So, not only are these government agencies effectively banning the implementation of Windows Vista, but they are also preventing users from upgrading to the latest versions of Microsoft Office and Internet Explorer, a move that the top brass in Redmond can’t be too thrilled about.

Fans of the open-source Linux operating system have had a lot to chew on over the past several weeks, beginning with rumors that Dell is possibly exploring the option of offering Linux as one of the operating system choices to users that purchase new PCs through the online store.

Follow that up with today’s revelation that the Federal Aviation Administration is moving forward with an exploratory effort to gauge whether or not a switch to Linux would be in its best interests when Windows XP no longer becomes a viable option.

“We’re considering the cost to deploy [Windows Vista] in our organization. But when you consider the incompatibilities, and the fact that we haven’t seen much in the way of documented business value, we felt that we needed to do a lot more study,” says FAA spokesperson David Bowen in a TechNewsWorld article.

Along with considering a move to Linux, the FAA is also studying the feasibility of switching its office applications to Google’s new Premier Apps – a move that would most likely become a necessary consequence of an all out switch to the Linux operating system.

All told, the FAA will need to completely replace its fleet of 45,000 PCs within the next several years. Considering not only the cost of the hardware, but also of securing licenses from Microsoft for both Windows and Office for all of the machines, the alternative of implementing low-cost, open source software begins to look more and more appealing to organizations looking to tighten up the bottom line figures.

In it Venkat Devraj makes an interesting case for using decision automation, what I would call decision management, to automate database administration tasks. His notes about why scripts are a rotten approach to this kind of automation are perfect and apply to all possible uses of decision management.

Staying on an IT operations front it made me wonder what else might be amenable to decision management. How about these:

• Network reconfiguration when equipment is added/removed/fails
• Engineer assignment to problem equipment using location, urgency, skills etc
• Monitoring the network to see which service level agreements are going to be breached and proactively informing the agreement holders
• Routing helpdesk calls based on source, urgency etc
• Managing backup schedules using rules and predictive analytics to optimize the approach
• Self-service diagnostics for patches and versions to help people set up valid stacks (like Sun Preventive Services for instance)

I am sure there are others but these were just ones that popped into my head based on customers, especially in telecommunications. I am not sure what the prompt for using EDM to manage these might be (in terms of scale) but an IT department that believed in the approach and was having a hard time selling it to the business might consider them as internal proof points.

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