AFI BLOG: Media and Technology

In Silicon Valley, a Flight to Safety - The Wall Street Journal

As the dot-com bust gave way to revival, many Silicon Valley engineers left large companies to join start-ups, drawn by excitement and the promise of fat payouts. Last month, Ameet Kher headed in the other direction.

From late 2006, the 35-year-old software engineer worked at a small telecommunications-equipment maker called Ditech Networks Inc. of Mountain View, Calif. Last year, the company swung to a net loss and laid off employees. Seeing headlines about an economic slowdown, Mr. Kher got nervous and started hunting for another job. Offers came from two tech start-ups, but he wasn’t interested in start-ups anymore. He wanted to join a big company.

“I know there’s a downturn coming,” Mr. Kher says. “I didn’t want to take any more risk.” On Feb. 4, he joined BlackBerry maker Research In Motion Ltd. as a senior software engineer.

Mr. Kher is part of a new flight to safety among tech-industry workers as the economy struggles. In growing numbers, these workers are gravitating to larger companies that they hope can better weather a downturn. Ian Arcuri, an engineer in Research Triangle Park, N.C., left a local tech start-up to join giant Cisco Systems Inc. in October. “If I have to live through an economic downturn for three years, then I’d like to be at a company with a big war chest,” he says.

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