Just lucky, I guess: Jung Hong-shik has taken the top job at Dacom Corp., replacing chairman and chief executive officer Park Un-suh, the companies announced last week. Jung was formerly president of LG Group's telecom business division. Dacom, one of South Korea's largest telecom operators, is but one of LG Group's 50 affiliated companies. The conglomerate used to go by the name Lucky Goldstar, which Headcount finds terribly amusing, though not really relevant to Mr. Hong-shik's job change.

A plague of locusts: By the time Vitesse Semiconductor Corp. (Nasdaq: VTSS) completes its acquisition of Cicada Semiconductor Inc., Cicada will have cut its workforce to about 40 employees, most of whom will be working in product development, Vitesse announced Monday (see Vitesse Buys GigE Ammo). A Cicada spokesman told Byte and Switch that there are more than 50 Cicadas employed at the moment. A more exact number was tough to nab, however, considering that all the senior managers of both Vitesse and Cicada are off this week.

Just axing: Headcount has received tips that Azanda Network Devices cut anywhere from 10 percent to 30 percent of its staff as it closed its recent funding round (see Azanda Moves On). What happened? We're not sure yet. According to its PR firm, Azanda's managers can't be reached for comment this week.

It's for you: The CEO and chairman of U.K. retailer Carphone Warehouse will give 2.5 million shares and 1.75 million shares, respectively, to some of their company's top managers as a holiday incentive, according to a report in the Financial Times.

Mail call: "In the November 11 column (see Headcount: Numbers Games ), you wondered if Emperative Inc. was shutting down," writes one Headcount reader. "I can't say anything that might be construed as 'disparaging' because I signed a severance document prohibiting it, but I can say:

And here are some further appointments, disappointments, and other employment-related headlines from the past several days:

That's all for this... year! Thanks for making Headcount the most widely-read semi-regular telecom employment column on Light Reading. While we pop the seal on a fresh box of wine and ponder how we can do more with less, we hope you'll keep those news tips coming to [email protected].

— Phil Harvey, Senior Editor, Light Reading