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23rd September 1998 Archive

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  • Roundup: yesterday's markets

    Stock trends around the world

    The Dow fell marginally and Nasdaq managed a 1.03 percent rise. Tokyo was closed for a holiday. AMD rose 4.2 percent as a result of its announcement that it was shipping a 300 MHz processor for laptops -- the same as Intel's fastest laptop processor. The ability of Broadcast.com to handle the Clinton adult video ("a record day …

    Business 23 Sep 1998, 07:10

  • Sony plans online trading venture

    Or at least, it thinks about planning it

    Sony is to team up with US outfit Charles Schwab to launch an online stockbroking system, according to Japanese reports. The service would initially be offered in Japan, where there are already a couple of online trading outfits. According to the reports the joint venture company will be formed before the end of the year, and …

    Business 23 Sep 1998, 08:00

  • Microsoft and IBM to clash in e-commerce

    Report predicts big showdown

    A new report by Gartner Group positions the leading e-commerce software vendors, and predicts a platform showdown between IBM and Microsoft. But everybody still has a long way to go. IBM and Microsoft are the only platform players, and will slug it out in what Gartner says is going to be a very large market. Their approach is …

    Business 23 Sep 1998, 08:01

  • Intel to axe nearly half of workforce at Alpha fab

    But pledges production of StrongARM to continue

    Intel is rationalising a fabrication plant in the USA where it makes Alpha chips, StrongARM devices, and other semiconductor components including PCI bridges. It will lay off 675 people -- nearly half of the staff employed at Fab 17 in Massachusetts -- a plant it acquired after it bought Digital's semiconductor unit. But Intel …

    Business 23 Sep 1998, 08:15

  • Storage startup to challenge Iomega

    Sealed units better than cartridges says firm

    Datazone has introduced a transportable hard drive which weighs seven ounces and comes in a range of capacities from 2Gb to 8Gb. The Databook, which is priced at $379, will compete against Zip, Jaz and SparQ cartridge systems, the company said. It has two options to connect to notebooks and desktops - either using the parallel …

    Business 23 Sep 1998, 08:21

  • Andersen forges $1.6 billion IT unit

    Consultancy giant puts three into one

    Management and technology consultancy giant Andersen Consulting has merged three of its industry groups into a single Communications & High Tech global market unit with $1.6 billion revenues. The new unit unites Andersen's Communications, Electronics & High Tech and Media & Entertainment industry practices, and is claimed by …

    Business 23 Sep 1998, 08:52

  • 3Com exceeds expectations

    But sales are down, so the jury's still out

    It was good news for 3COM yesterday: Q1 net income was up 32 percent sequentially in its Q1 results, and analysts' expectations had been exceeded. Other ways of looking at the figures are less attractive: the $1.41 billion sales were 12 percent off the year earlier figure, and only 2 percent up on the previous quarter. Net …

    Business 23 Sep 1998, 09:19

  • Alcatel chair steers into choppy waters

    Cavalier attitude to class action fails to impress

    Yesterday's announcement that Alcatel had signed a $150 million contract to provide the MAYA 1 submarine network for the Caribbean did not help Alcatel's predicament much. Alcatel will get about 75 percent of the contract value -- the remainder goes to Tyco Submarine Systems. Perhaps it was a mistake to sign the contract in the …

    Business 23 Sep 1998, 09:22

  • A billion cellular phones by 2005, says Nokia

    And a glowing multimedia future - but what about jam today?

    Nokia sees a rosy future for mobile phone growth, and has revised its estimates upwards, reckoning that there will now be a billion cellular subscribers world-wide by 2005. And significantly, it sees multimedia as a key factor in this growth. "We now estimate that there will be about one billion subscribers in the year 2005 and …

    Business 23 Sep 1998, 09:24

  • NewsNow steals our headlines!

    And long may it continue

    Congratulations to Struan Bartlett and Nick Gilbert, former colleagues of The Register in our VNU days, for their success in creating NewsNow, a spanking gorgeous UK news aggregation site. After seven short months, NewsNow has hit half a million page views per month, a useful milestone which will do no harm when it comes to …

    Business 23 Sep 1998, 10:17

  • ICM results better than expected

    Attractive bid target

    ICM Computer Group has come in comfortably ahead of forecasts in its London Stock Exchange maiden set of set of results. The Leeds-based company reported £3.43 million PBT (on continuing activities), 43 per cent up on 1997, and ahead of the £2.85 millon flotation forecast. The figures include a one-off loss of £502,000, related …

    Business 23 Sep 1998, 11:05

  • DoJ demands Gates video testimony be made public

    Microsoft pushes to keep evidence in camera

    Yesterday, the DoJ filed a brief to the court of appeals concerning Microsoft's appeal to prevent Bill Gates' and other Microsoft executives' video-taped depositions being made public, as required by the 1913 Publicity in Taking Evidence Act. The parallel to the Clinton videotape being made public sharply focuses attention on …

    Business 23 Sep 1998, 11:45

  • Netscape teams up with Bull, Lucent

    Bull to push into US security software market, Lucent to push ecommerce at telcos -- both use Netscape software

    Netscape has signed agreements with Bull and Lucent, the first to provide tougher security software and the second to bring ecommerce solutions to telcos and major corporates. The Bull deal licenses Netscape to resell the its firewall technology, NetWall. In return, the French company's software subsidiary, BullSoft, will …

    Business 23 Sep 1998, 11:56

  • Intel's Barrett says company made $2 billion from Net since July

    Claims that Western Europe is lagging behind US

    Intel CEO Craig Barrett has used his visit to the UK to hit out at the high price of telecomms charges and a lack on behalf of the educational authorities to implement PC technology. Barrett, who later this afternoon is speaking at the House of Commons as part of a joint educational initiative with the University of Oxford, said …

    Business 23 Sep 1998, 13:27

  • Barrett plays down Compaq competition

    Competition the name of the game

    The CEO of Intel today attempted to play down competition from Compaq's Alpha platform and said that Eckhard Pfeiffer's firm was still committed to Merced. Speaking at a Q&A session after a keynote speech he delivered to over 500 business executives in London today, Barrett said: "Compaq bought the Digital Equipment Corporation …

    Business 23 Sep 1998, 13:31

  • Sybase sets up embedded division

    Takes aim at mobile computing

    Sybase announced yesterday an "executive transition" and a new move to create an embedded computing division. John Chen, who joined Sybase in 1997 and was appointed co-CEO with Mitchell Kertzman as the other co-CEO, is now given both reins, and Kertzman stays as Chairman. The move was foreseen in February when Chen, who was …

    Business 23 Sep 1998, 13:37

  • Novell begins BorderManager beta

    Next stage in move to Internet/intranet network models

    Novell said yesterday that it had begun a beta test of BorderManager Enterprise Edition 3, its software for Internet security management that is currently used by 4.5 million enterprises. After its seasons in the wilderness when it could do no right, in recent weeks the media have been taking a kinder view of Novell. There is …

    Business 23 Sep 1998, 13:39

  • CEO of Intel urges vendors to go direct

    Takes swipe at France as no place to do business

    Craig Barrett, Intel's CEO, said today that the way to sell PCs in the future was across the Web. That is likely to antagonise major vendors, including IBM and Compaq, which still maintain they have a channel strategy. Bennett said that in ten years' time e-commerce was likely to be worth trillions of dollars and that the way to …

    Business 23 Sep 1998, 13:41

  • Intel roadmap goes chocaholic

    Fosters, four XXXX, Kahlua and Lilac Wine. What next?

    A fresh codename for a future processor has appeared on an Intel roadmap and it is named after a beer rather than a city. A roadmap Intel's CEO Craig Barrett showed at a meeting with London business executives had the name Fosters as the next IA-32 processor after Cascades. But worse is to come. Other codenames on future …

    Business 23 Sep 1998, 13:48

  • Intel price slashing to remain unabated

    Katmai, Tanner prices leaked comprehensively

    Details have emerged about the introduction of Intel's Tanner processor, a 500MHz part with 512K of level two cache. At the same time, it has emerged that Intel will keep the price of its high end Xeon server platform right up through until the beginning of next year. According to a leaked price roadmap, which The Register …

    Business 23 Sep 1998, 14:01

  • Bouygues pullout may give Telecom Italia French foothold

    Confused construction outfit to concentrate on cellular

    Telecom Italia looks set to inherit an embryonic French fixed line telecommunications operation, following the decision of partner to Bouygues to pull out. Bouygues is basically a construction company, but has piled into telecoms because of European deregulation. It owns Bouygues Telecom, the GSM 1800 system that started up in …

    Business 23 Sep 1998, 14:16

  • Internet access takes to the skies

    The plane truth...

    Now we've heard everything. St. Louis, Missouri-based Angel Technologies is planning a new wireless communications service for major US cities -- based on high-altitude aircraft. The company demonstrated the plane, called Proteus, in the Mojave desert yesterday. The oddly-shaped beast is designed to get up to 50,000ft and fly …

    Business 23 Sep 1998, 15:18

  • Intel chief says NC dead

    Craig Barrett echoes Bill Gates

    The CEO of Intel said today that only Larry Ellison, Oracle's CEO, believed the NC or the Windows Terminal was still a viable option. Speaking to 30 journalists after meeting 500 businessmen in London today, Craig Barrett said: "The whole concept of NCs has been pretty well answered by the public. Only Larry Ellison hasn't heard …

    Business 23 Sep 1998, 15:31

  • Compaq to implement Visa scheme in Holland

    Globeset will be partner

    Compaq has been selected as the prime contractor to implement a Visa credit card Internet shopping pilot in the Netherlands. The project is to be carried out in conjunction with GlobeSet, a supplier of techonlogies compliant with the Secure Electronic Transactions (SET) 1.0 standard. In addition to SET technology Compaq will be …

    Business 23 Sep 1998, 15:49

  • US storage card vendor raises finance in Europe

    Plans EuroNM IPO

    In an unusual reversal of the way these things usually work, a US hi-tech manufacturer has turned to Europe for funding. Washington state based Upgrade International has secured up to $10 million in private financing from European institutions. It will use this to complete the acquisition of a 50 per cent stake in Ultra Card. …

    Business 23 Sep 1998, 15:51

  • CAA undertakes survey to verify PC-aeroplane compatibility

    Qantas 747 nearly hits London and begs several questions

    The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) said today that it was sponsoring research into the effects of PCs and CD-ROMs on aeroplanes, large and small. That follows a report in today's edition of The Daily Mail which claimed that a Qantas 747 almost destroyed large parts of London because passengers were playing computer games. The …

    Business 23 Sep 1998, 16:33

  • iMac number two seller in August

    As Apple's consumer sales rocket, Dell shows signs of panic

    Apple's iMac was the second best-selling PC in the US in August, according to market research firm PC Data. And the signs are its Wintel rivals are beginning to take it more seriously. The top-selling system, based on a survey of catalog sales operations and retailers, showed Hewlett-Packard's Pavilion 6330 account for 8.6 per …

    Business 23 Sep 1998, 16:34

  • Northamber pins price erosion on Intel

    Turnover is vanity, profit is reality, cash is sanity

    Northamber has placed the blame for market price erosion squarely on Intel’s shoulders. Turning in a good set of annual results, the Chessington-based distributor said “over-frequent announcements of performance upgrades to their Pentium processors... had contributed to purchasing delays and inevitably consumer confusion”. Sales …

    Business 23 Sep 1998, 16:54