A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away lived a little green Jedi master who fought valiantly against the forces of the dark side. Today though, Yoda is feeling the squeeze of these tough economic times as much as anybody and has had to make that unenviable move from shooting genre-defining Hollywood blockbusters to filming advertisements for Vodafone in the UK. Ah, the perils of being typecast – but the Yodafone is not the only one finding himself out of pocket these days.

Welcome back readers and a very happy new year to all of you who subscribe to the Gregorian calendar. Don’t worry, that sluggish feeling will probably have gone by next week, it’s just your body going into shock from the suddenly reduced calorie intake that accompanied the return to work.

The Informer recently met with Lee Epting, an interesting lady who holds the position of director of content services for Vodafone. That a carrier should have a director of content services at a time when conversations about ‘pipes’ are so prevalent is fascinating in itself, but not nearly as fascinating as the fact that Epting joined the carrier when the wreckage of Vodafone 360 was still smoking and managed to salvage some of the ill fated project.

There was an unwelcome flashback to the grim days of the early noughties this week as struggling vendor Nokia Siemens Networks announced that it is to cut almost one quarter of its workforce. Some 17,000 NSN employees, 23 per cent of the total, are for the chop as the firm bids to try and save €1bn in operating costs by the end of 2013. Analysts speculated that the firm is gearing up for an IPO next year and that the cuts are designed to make it a more attractive prospect to potential investors. Certainly it is widely believed that Siemens has been looking to exit the JV pretty much since it was established in 2007. The two parents abandoned their search for investment in June this year, opting instead to inject $500m apiece into the firm at the end of September.