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12th October 1998 Archive

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  • Roundup: Last week's markets

    Fed optimism fuels late US rally

    Optimism that the Fed will keep obliging with interest rate reductions, and that other governments would act sensibly to solve the problems with the global economy drove the Dow up 2 per cent and Nasdaq up 5 per cent on Friday, compensating somewhat for the 12 per cent fall in the first four days of the week. JP Morgan is now …

    Business 12 Oct 1998, 08:15

  • Softbank strikes distribution deal with Ingram

    Japanese giant stiffens home operations as ZD takes a hit

    Softbank Corp, the Japanese company controlled by Masayoshi Son ("the Bill Gates of Japan") and which owns 71 per cent of Ziff-Davis Inc, 35 per cent of Geocities, and 31 per cent of Yahoo, signed an agreement with Ingram Micro this morning to cooperate on distribution. As part of the arrangement, there will be an exchange of $ …

    Business 12 Oct 1998, 08:17

  • Does Microsoft ‘gibberish’ database run on IBM hardware?

    Register supersleuth Graham Lea reckons Microsoft is being bashful about owning a SAP-AS/400 combo

    It is interesting to consider why Microsoft claimed that the software for the Microsoft sales database is too large and complex to function on any computers to which the Justice Department has access. Judge Jackson overruled Microsoft on Friday, stating that the data supplied by Microsoft was "gibberish"(earlier story). …

    Business 12 Oct 1998, 08:21

  • Microsoft leaks its own memos

    Bill Gates has been telling his staff what the future holds, and his PRs have been telling the press

    Previous Bill Gates memos have reached the outside world via leaks and subpoenas - so has Microsoft decided to bow to the inevitable by leaking one officially? A 'business as usual' 10,000 word pep talk to the troops has found its way into today's New York Times, the text being given to the paper on condition that it doesn't …

    Business 12 Oct 1998, 08:24

  • Sugar urges Viglen shareholders to reject his takeover offer

    Undervalued, he says

    Alan Sugar, the Amstrad and Tottenham Hotspur and Viglen chairman, is to make a mandatory offer for the outstanding shares in Viglen that he does not own. But in a curious twist, he is urging other shareholders to refuse his offer for the PC builder. The offer at 24p per share values Viglen at £29.3 million, around one third of …

    Business 12 Oct 1998, 10:00

  • Zenith jobs threatened after Philips pulls out of plant deal

    The company that once ruled the roost in US TVs may have built its last product by December

    Struggling US TV operation Zenith Electronics says it will close its tube manufacturing plant in December if a buyer can't be found. On Friday it was revealed that Philips Electronics had been in talks to buy the operation, which has 2,000 workers, but has now pulled out. The plant has to go anyway as part of a drastic re- …

    Business 12 Oct 1998, 10:12

  • Global server sales slump, second division vendors in big trouble

    The top vendors are feeling the draught, but it's a lot colder further down the league

    The Asian economic crisis has had a severe effect on the server market, according to recent Dataquest figures. The research outfit reckons that global revenue for Q2 1998 was $9.9 billion, down 11.2 per cent on the previous year. Nmubers were down everywhere but Europe, with Japan (-31.6 per cent) and Asia-Pacific (-34 per cent …

    Business 12 Oct 1998, 10:41

  • Apple set to announce first full year of profit since 95

    And watch that stock price shift when Steve gives the wrod...

    Apple is set to report its first profitable year since 1995 on Wednesday, and will celebrate by announcing the good news, plus new products, while the stock markets are still open. West Coast companies like Apple frequently report after the markets close, usually for timezone reasons, although sometimes this can be convenient. …

    Business 12 Oct 1998, 11:06

  • Embedded Windows CE out first in Sega machine

    The new box may turn out to be a winner for WebTV's services

    The first fruits of the Microsoft-Sega alliance announced earlier this year will ship in Japan this November, and although Sega doesn't intend to have the product, the Dreamcast games machine, on sale elsewhere until late next year, it has a couple of key features that may be massively significant for Microsoft, and its CE …

    Business 12 Oct 1998, 11:23

  • Ideal rises on "strong trading"

    Market is stabilising

    Storage specialist distributor Ideal Hardware saw its shares rocket by 25p this morning following the release of annual financial results. Ideal, which issued a profit warning back in April and saw its shares nosedive, has reported a £8.71m profit for the year ending 31 July 1998, compared to £9.71m in 1997. Turnover for the …

    Business 12 Oct 1998, 11:41

  • ARM chips with everything

    Profits up

    All those ARM licence deals in recent months are beginning to pay off for the Cambridge, UK semiconductor design house. Its £11.3 million revenues to 30 September, 1998 were 68 per cent up on same time last year, and 13 per cent on Q2. Pre-tax profits jumped 75 per cent to £2.5 million. ARM's nine month revenues were £29.8 …

    Business 12 Oct 1998, 14:53

  • CDMA will mysteriously catch GSM, says report

    But it's not entirely clear why...

    Good news and bad news for the CDMA camp. According to a study from Forward Concepts released today, GSM will remain the dominant world standard until at least 2003, but by that point cdmaOne revenues will be real close. The study, Wireless99, was written for Forward Concepts by Micrologic Research, and says the GSM market will …

    Business 12 Oct 1998, 16:09

  • Diamond dogged by music law suit

    Don't touch that dial

    US record companies have re-ignited their attack on Internet music entrepreneurs by planning to file a lawsuit against Diamond Multimedia, maker of the Rio PMP300 portable music player. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has joined forces with the Alliance of Artists and Recording Companies to charge Diamond …

    Business 12 Oct 1998, 17:00

  • Datatec buys Network Si

    Will merge into Logical Networks

    Datatec UK has splashed out again - - this time on Network SI, the venerable networking equipment reseller . The South African-owned conglomerate is paying £8.5 million upfront for the company. No earn-out is attached to the deal. Network SI, the third UK reseller bought by Datatec in a year, will merge into the group’s Logical …

    Business 12 Oct 1998, 17:04

  • Computer Experts wins US mega-millennium deal

    From the US Treasury, no less

    UK-based Computer Experts Ltd struck a blow for the British IT industry today when it announced that the US Treasury had submitted an order for a 150,000-seat licence for its Millennium Bug Toolkit. The UK firm which already has an impressive client list that includes Sony, Shell, Coca-Cola, Smith Kline Beecham and Motorola, has …

    Business 12 Oct 1998, 17:17

  • Elcom shaves costs in restructure

    But will it be any more profitable?

    US-owned reseller Elcom International will embark on a major restructure in an attempt to exorcise the takeover demons of the past few months and make the company more focused and profitable. Its e-commerce subsidiary Elcom Systems will become an e-commerce systems integration arm of the Elcom Services Group (ESG). This will, …

    Business 12 Oct 1998, 17:27