4th September 1998 Archive

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UK hit in further fab blow

Six hundred jobs to go

Fujitsu will today announce the closure of its fab in Newton Aycliffe in the north east of England, barely six weeks since a Siemens fab in the area shut. The news will come to a blow to government ministers, already reeling from the impact of other real and potential cuts in inward investment. Fujitsu will blame the closure of …

Business 4 Sep 1998, 07:22
US looking at censoring Internet cable access

FCC produces working paper

The spectre of US Internet cable access regulation and censorship looms. The Federal Communications Commission has produced a working paper "Internet over cable: defining the future in terms of the past" by staffer Barbara Esbin that notes that the FCC does not regulate Internet access through cable television, Internet …

Business 4 Sep 1998, 07:30
Microsoft ambushed by DOJ

Hits the panic button

Microsoft says that the Department of Justice's efforts threaten to convert the case into a "trial by ambush". The allegation was in the latest motion to be filed late yesterday by Microsoft in the Washington DC federal court. The DoJ's response filed on Monday was careful not to set out in detail the additional issues that have …

Business 4 Sep 1998, 09:39
Delphi flogs off US and French branches

Not so oracular, huh?

Training and recruitment company Delphi is lopping off its US and French branches in the face of worse than expected interim results for the six months ending 30 June. For the first half of 1998, turnover stood at £162.2 million, an increase of some 22 per cent on £133.4 million for the first six months of last year. Profit, …

Business 4 Sep 1998, 09:44
03/09/98 Daily Digest

Where there's a channel, we find flannel

SU turns to channel for growth opportunities Systems Union is looking to the indirect channel to deliver growth. The accountancy software vendor has expanded its international indirect sales team in the UK, Europe, Middle East and Africa, to prepare for the expansion of the market. Hugh Scantlebury, indirect sales manager at …

Business 4 Sep 1998, 09:49
Server problems this morning

It should be back to normal, now

Some of the stories on the site were truncated or in the worst cases missing, due to circumstances beyond the control of the staffers here. Apologies all around. We think we're back to our usual,abnormal service. Tell us if we're wrong. ®

Business 4 Sep 1998, 10:29
BT to use Ericsson technology for fast Net home use

Copper double whopper

BT is taking advantage of technology developed by Ericsson to offer BT Highway, a new digital communication service targeted at home and small business Internet users. Ericsson's Eristream allows users to have two digital lines over a single copper circuit. This allows one line to be used for data and the other for voice, with a …

Business 4 Sep 1998, 10:41
CyberMedia scores partial victory over Symantec

Quite a few smoking guns lying around

Symantec has been ordered by a federal judge in San Jose to issue a "notice of recall" of Norton's Uninstaller Deluxe because of allegations that it contains code from CyberMedia's UnInstaller. It is not yet a full victory for CyberMedia because the alleged copyright infringement has to be proved at trial. In February, …

Business 4 Sep 1998, 10:45
Hardware giants bypass Intel for new, improved PCI spec

Compaq, HP and IBM are unlikely chums

Frustrated at being subservient to Intel's control of processor technology,Compaq, HP and IBM are quietly developing an improved PCI specification(unimaginatively code-named Project 1). At issue is the speed of data transfer between the processor and peripherals. The tablets that Intel brought down from the mountain in 1993 said …

Business 4 Sep 1998, 10:55
JBA mulls over sale of channel arm

Drags margins down

AS/400 house JBA, is planning to divest itself from its channels division despite turning in results that chairman Alan Vickery claimed were better than expected. Vickery said JBA was considering spinning off the division or selling off part of its stake. "We've thought about lots of options," he said. "Including reducing our …

Business 4 Sep 1998, 11:00
Novell herds resellers into PartnerNet

Wants 25,000 signings

Novell is embarking on a major push to promote the latest gong for its channel partners to hang on their walls. The PartnerNet programme, which is scheduled to complete its roll out at the end of October, offers resellers throughout the EMEA region training, cut-price support and free software. Novell claims to be targeting in …

Business 4 Sep 1998, 11:06
Hitachi to close another fab

More DRAM doom from Japanese firm

Hitachi is expected to announce the closure of another DRAM fabrication plant today, this time in Dallas, Texas. Yesterday, Hitachi shut its Irvin chip plant with the loss of 500 jobs, and announced it would restructure its chip operations in the US, as reported here. That news will come close on the heels of Fujitsu's official …

Business 4 Sep 1998, 11:07
UK hard disk component vendor bought

Japanese buyers create "next generation" HDD company

Two Japanese giants have joined forces to buy UK disk equipment maker Nordiko. The two companies, precision equipment maker Shimadzu and semiconductor trader Marubun, will spend a total of £22 million on Nordiko to create what they say will be the largest producer of next- generation computer hard disk equipment. Of the two …

Business 4 Sep 1998, 11:11
Web searching? Elementary, my dear Apple

The portals don't like it

A row is brewing between Apple and the Web's leading search engine companies over technology designed to make finding information on the Internet easier that is set to be included in the Mac maker's forthcoming MacOS 8.5 operating system. One of MacOS 8.5's key features is Sherlock, a major upgrade to the system software's Find …

Business 4 Sep 1998, 11:36
Update: Fujitsu formally announces fab closure

Mandelson announces aid package

Fujitsu has now formally announced the closure of its fab in Newton Aycliffe in the north east of England, barely six weeks since a Siemens fab in the area shut. Peter Mandelson, UK minister at the Department of Trade and Industry, announced a £100 million package to aid the region. The Fujitsu plant is in the constituency of …

Business 4 Sep 1998, 11:37
Markets: Intel gets financial analysts vote

Our round-up of world markets

American financial analysts are raising their earnings estimates for Intel's third quarter to 79 to 80 cent/share because of what they believe is growing PC demand. With Xeon processors becoming available in the fourth quarter, the new prediction is for earnings around $3.14 for the year. It seems that Wall Street does not throw …

Business 4 Sep 1998, 12:10
Newbridge acquires affiliate company

Voice, fax data consolidation

Newbridge Networks has signed a letter of intent to buy Castleton Network Systems, one of its Newbridge Affiliates. Castleton develops packet voice technology and high performance network access products. The companies have worked together previously on a project to develop product solutions in advanced voice and enterprise …

Business 4 Sep 1998, 12:51
Cadence snaps up Ambit

Look out for BuildGates

Cadence is aggressively pursuing the system-on-a-chip (SOC) market with the acquisition of Ambit, developer of critical design automation technology used in SOC design. The deal is worth $260 million, and will be paid in cash. Ambit, a privately-held company and currently an OEM partner of Cadence, offers a leading-edge product …

Business 4 Sep 1998, 12:53
In brief: Chinese consortium interested in UK DRAM fab

Mainland looking to future

Reliable reports said today that there could be an auction between a consortium led by STMicroelectronics and another group from mainland China. The Chinese group are interested in acquiring the fab in north east England outright, according to the sources. Yesterday, it was revealed that STMicro (formerly SGS Thomson) was …

Business 4 Sep 1998, 14:22
Kyocera investigators move in

Takeover gets a little closer

A Japanese team from Kyocera has arrived at the offices of Mita to look at the prospects of a takeover. Mita makes photocopiers but went bankrupt, largely as a result of offshore development of its products, according to sources. Mr Miyazaki, the court appointed receiver, welcomed the arrival of the six strong team from Kyocera …

Business 4 Sep 1998, 14:36
NEC Direct transplants to Livingston

job losses, but "nothing drastic"

NEC Direct has moved its corporate sales office to its plant in Livingston, near Edinburgh, from Maidenhead. Manufacturing of NEC's Powermate and Versa notebook ranges will move to the plant from France and Japan, next year. All personnel were told about the move about six months ago, and those that did not want to relocate were …

Business 4 Sep 1998, 15:15
Aladdin fires president but doesn't tell anyone

Tells boss to Stuffit

Shareware utilities specialist Aladdin Systems has covertly fired its president, John Nesham, and 12 members of staff. The dismissals took place three weeks ago, but were only revealed this week by on-line magazine macweek.com. An Aladdin Systems spokeswoman said the company's board felt Nesham was "not taking the company in the …

Business 4 Sep 1998, 15:18
In brief: Kyocera UK to sell Iridium satellite and mobile phones

Deal just struck

Sources close to Kyocera said that its UK division will sell satellite phones using the Motorola Iridium system. The company will also sell mobile phones in the UK for the first time, according to a reliable source. A US startup called BrightPoint is involved.

Business 4 Sep 1998, 15:52
04/09/98 Daily Digest

Canal Plus

Ingram Micro pumps up ecommerce with pcOrder.com Ingram Micro's plans to compete with Web-based direct PC sellers moved a stage further yesterday as the company licensed pcOrder.com's on-line system configuration technology for its forthcoming ecommerce site. As reported in The Register in July (see Ingram wants a cut of …

Business 4 Sep 1998, 16:20