21st September 1998 Archive

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Web War I: Every GI Joe has an IP place to go

Every US military person has a domain name

The latest counts for Internet domain names by Network Wizards show that in July, the UK (with 1,190,663 hosts) had overtaken Germany, and moved to seventh place. Of the domain suffixes, .com was first with more than 10 million, then .net with 7 million, then .edu with 4 million. The surprise at number four position is the US …

Business 21 Sep 1998, 07:10
Web War II: Doors open and close

Netscape boldly strategises while Yahoo timidly withdraws

Portal and telecom convergence has taken a step forwards and backwards this week. Netscape announced a three-year strategic deal with Qwest to provide communication services for its portal, while Yahoo announced that it was stopping its own deal with MCI, inked in March, because of the sale of MCI to Cable & Wireless. The AT&T …

Business 21 Sep 1998, 07:13
Gartner pulls cost study after calc error

Error in cost calculation kind of undermined study

Gartner Group has pulled a study from its Web site following the discovery of a screw-up in the calculations. The study, Workgroup and Intranet Computing: Cost of Ownership, was commissioned by IBM, Microsoft, NetScape, Novell and Oracle, and detailed costs and usage profiles of 338 enterprises using workgroup and intranet …

Business 21 Sep 1998, 08:14
Lockheed Martin bids for satellite outfit

But the deal may be tricky to pull off

US aerospace giant Lockheed Martin has moved to add some meat to its proposed global network services operations with a $2.7 billion bid for Comsat Corp. Lockheed Martin formed a subsidiary. Lockheed Martin Global Telecommunications, in April in order to cater for the satellite data, video and voice telephony markets. Global …

Business 21 Sep 1998, 08:17
Hyundai-LG on-off merger deal off again?

Intransigence plus threats from Europe and US could kill it

The proposed merger of the semiconductor arms of Hyundai and LG is on the point of falling apart, said Korean sources yesterday. According to the The Korea Herald, the deal is running aground on the rock of control - both sides, as was to be expected, want to run the merged company and neither will give in. Also predictable (and …

Business 21 Sep 1998, 08:19
ARM joins in Bluetooth initiative

And do we see more sweetness and light between ARM and Intel?

ARM has joined the 'Bluetooth' wireless technology initiative and says it will start to design intellectual property that implements the Bluetooth specification, which is currently under development. What this might be is an interesting topic; when Bluetooth started up the founders divvied-up the responsibilities between them, …

Business 21 Sep 1998, 08:21
Further Japanese DRAM domino falls in shape of NEC

Company predicts half year 20 billion yen loss

Another major Japanese company has fallen victim to the worldwide slump in semiconductor prices. NEC, which is the biggest semiconductor manufacturer in Japan, said that it will make a loss of 20 billion yen. It will lay off 6,000 people worldwide and there are certain to be job losses at its plants in Scotland and Ireland. …

Business 21 Sep 1998, 09:27
Ciena moves options goal-post

"Enhancing shareholder value"

Ciena, the optical telecoms equipment manufacturer, has repriced employee share options, following the recent 85 per cent collapse in its share price. The company, spurned last week by suitor Tellab, has approved a new exercise price of $12.375, CIENA’s closing price as of September 16,1998. The repricing applies to all employee …

Business 21 Sep 1998, 09:47
Dixons sets up as ISP

ISPs are surrounded

Dixons Store Group, the UK's biggest computer retailer, is venturing into the Internet access provider market, according to the Mail on Sunday. The company accounts for 12 per cent of all PCs sold in the UK, and 35 per cent of sales in the consumer sector. By capturing Internet customers at the point of PC purchase, Dixons will …

Business 21 Sep 1998, 10:06
Internet executives blaze into Forbes' CEOs' wads chart

Our companies don't make much money, but by heck we do

Almost a third of the IT industry's 100 wealthiest players work in Internet-related ventures, according to Forbes magazine's annual listing. Many of them are way ahead of better-known executives like Eckhard Ffeiffer (chart position: 42), Lou Gerstner (50) and Craig Barrett (55). There's no great surprise who heads the list: …

Business 21 Sep 1998, 10:21
Trade association moves to make fibre channel interconnect

IP approach could solve IT managers problems

The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) has undertaken to provide a standard to allow IP and the address resolution protocol to run over fibre channel. The initiative, promped by industry association, the Fibre Channel Association (FCA), wants a standard to solve problems caused by multiple implementations. This problem also …

Business 21 Sep 1998, 10:27
PC sales growth slows

And the margins have gone through the floor

PC sales have shrunk to 15 percent annual growth from 25 percent in 1994, with margins at 1.3 percent compared with 30.1 percent in 1995. Average selling prices in the US have dropped 10 percent so far in 1998. However, the top four PC makers -- Dell, Compaq, HP and IBM -- still only account for 37 percent of the market, which …

Business 21 Sep 1998, 10:54
Andreessen predicts free PCs

Giving away browsers has turned his head...

Marc Andreessen of Netscape (who didn't invent browsers, despite the many claims that he did in the US media -- by Bloomberg most recently) has been going on again about how PCs will soon be free. He takes as his model the evolution of cell phones. He also predicted the "death of the consumer software industry" but his vision of …

Business 21 Sep 1998, 10:56
Quieter time in Friday markets

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The strangest thing about Friday's trading was that both bonds and stocks rose in US markets. The Nasdaq rose 1.1 percent to 7896 (up 1.1 percent for the week) and the Dow up 0.3 percent to 7896 (up 1.3 percent for the week). The Nikkei rose nearly 1 percent on news that something was being done about the perilous banking sector …

Business 21 Sep 1998, 11:02
Online mag hit by bomb scare

Defending Clinton can be dangerous, seemingly

It was all part of a tit-for-tat when Salon Magazine, an online Ziff Davis publication, received a bomb threat, abusive emails and black faxes, resulting in the evacuation of its San Francisco offices on Friday afternoon. Salon has been more forthright than the print media in questioning Starr's motives and defending Clinton. On …

Business 21 Sep 1998, 11:03
Ultra 3 SCSI ready to dawn

Wide backing for 160Mbps standard

The SCSI Trade Association has announced the release of Ultra 160/M SCSI, an implementation based on Ultra 3 SCSI and intended to provide speeds of 160Mbps. The announcement received broad support from a number of vendors including Quantum, Adaptec, Fujitsu, HP, Mylex, Qlogic, IBM, Seagate, Western Digital and others. Quantum …

Business 21 Sep 1998, 11:08
AMD claims gamesters not interested in Katmai

Celeron should have Katmai instructions, claims AMD

Intel's major rival Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) has claimed that the paucity of games developers at last week's Intel Developer Forum is because Katmai samples are not available and will be expensive. At last week's developer forum, Intel admitted there were very few games developers present. AMD North European director, …

Business 21 Sep 1998, 13:44
Compaq, AMD continue to squeeze Intel

AMD to launch cheap mobile part, K7 and Alpha platforms to interchange

AMD will tomorrow release a 300MHz mobile K6 part aimed at the notebook market. At the same time, sources said that the K7, which was taped out four weeks ago, as reported here, will be interchangeable with Alpha devices. The company refused to give pricing details of its low power part for the notebook market but said it …

Business 21 Sep 1998, 13:54
IBM MinkPads to go direct

Final element of Gerstner's PC plans crumbles

IBM is expected to announce a range of ThinkPads in the next few days which will turn its former channel policy on its head. The notebooks, dubbed iThinkPads, according to sources close to the company, will be sold direct rather than through the channel. During this year, IBM has steadily reduced its dependence on the channel in …

Business 21 Sep 1998, 14:20
Creative goes all channel cuddly

CAP scheme to appeal to all assemblers, &c.

Creative Labs has changed its European marketing and channel programmes in a bid to cosy up to its channel. The company said that its Creative Assembler Programme (CAP) would allow the assembler communities to maximise their profits by pushing the Creative name. Creative will also promote its distributors and major resellers by …

Business 21 Sep 1998, 14:54
UK .gov to abolish patent fees

Innovation the key, says the good doctor

Labour Party Minister Dr Kim Howells said today that the UK will abolish fees for patent applications and cut down on the cost of services by 20 per cent. Dr Howells is the UK minister of competition and consumer affairs, succeeding Nigel Griffiths after the latest Cabinet reshuffle in midsummer. On a visit to the HQ of the …

Business 21 Sep 1998, 15:05
NEWS IN BRIEF

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Dutch company takes over US company Baan has acquired Caps Logistics, a supply chain software company. 4Front Technologies makes first Italian acquisition 4Front, the UK-based, NASDAQ-quoted mini-IT conglomerate, has moved into the Italian market with the acquisition of hardware maintenance firm Memorex Telex SpA. It is paying …

Business 21 Sep 1998, 15:40