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13th November 1998 Archive

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  • A year ago today: Those crazy Koreans

    More DRAM than ever you've seen

    Just when Korea's electronics big three have been exercising themselves on how to deal with the difficulties caused by being in the DRAM market, Korea's number 22 company, Dongbu Group, proposes to spend $2 billion on a DRAM plant. In the long run, of course, we're all going to need memory, so there's money to be made out of …

    Business 13 Nov 1998, 08:34

  • Mud flies as Microsoft brief goes for Intel exec's throat

    Andy Grove? Mad Dog? May be a reference to an Intel CPU project, Cerberon...

    Relationships within the Wintel alliance have been much more hostile than had previously been realised, it emerged during the third day of Intel VP Steve McGeady's evidence. The most acrimonious cross-examination so far took place yesterday when Microsoft attorney Steve Holley of Sullivan & Cromwell tried to give McGeady a rough …

    Business 13 Nov 1998, 08:53

  • It's Comparex Holdings now, so mind your Ps and Qs

    Largest South African IT company gets new name

    South Africa's largest channel company is changing its name from PQ Holdings (Persetel Q Data Holdings) to Comparex Holdings. The change will take place officially on November 16 and has been initiated to reflect the international flavour of the group's activities, the company said. PQ Holdings was created just over a year ago …

    Business 13 Nov 1998, 09:29

  • Motherhood and Connect Pie

    H-P tops at looking after channel

    Hewlett-Packard can't seem to put a foot wrong when it comes to mothering its channel siblings, claims independent researcher IDC. It believes Connect -- H-P's umbrella channel marketing programme -- is one of best IT channel schemes in Europe and other similar schemes from competitors simply don't match the structure and …

    Business 13 Nov 1998, 09:31

  • Lynx on the prowl

    Under-powered auto division drags down sparkling performance

    Lynx Holdings plc has posted strong preliminary results, despite the poor performance of its automotive systems business. Turnover was up by 50 per cent from £120.75 million to £180.75 million,sending pre-tax profits soaring 35 per cent from £9.8 million to £13.25 million. "These results demonstrate our ability to deliver …

    Business 13 Nov 1998, 09:33

  • Prism managers bid to take firm private

    is it enough to halt slide?

    Managers at Enfield-based Prism Leisure plc have offered to buy back the company in a cash deal worth £6.25 million. The offer by Linkwell -- the vehicle created by Prism's management for the takeover -- is for 75 pence a share. Turnover has fallen from a high of £33.5 million two years ago to 31.1 million last year. Profit fell …

    Business 13 Nov 1998, 09:39

  • EU complaint filed over BT-AT&T operation

    Is the joint venture starting prior to approval? Oh no, says AT&T

    AT&T's announcement earlier this week that it will be selling British Telecom Concert voice and data services to major US corporations has triggered a complaint to the EU. The two companies earlier this year announced a $10 billion joint venture in the same field, but this has yet to gain EU clearance. The European Commission …

    Business 13 Nov 1998, 10:49

  • McGeady to Grove: goad Microsoft into provoking the DoJ

    One wonders why he thought Microsoft needed goading before it would do this...

    An intriguing email surfaced in yesterday’s court proceedings. In December 1996 Intel exec Steve ‘prima donna’ McGeady wrote to Andy ‘Mad Dog’ Grove: "Microsoft could be goaded into doing something really stupid and anticompetitive, finally enraging the apparently placid antitrust police." This could be – and was – represented …

    Business 13 Nov 1998, 10:57

  • Intel Taiwan investment suggest DSL-ready scheme

    More CPU horsepower and lower-cost devices - right up Intel's street

    Intel has bought into a United Microelectronics spin-off company specialising in DSL chip production. Significantly, Taiwanese company Integrated Telecom Express (ITeX) uses DSP techniques for its products. The company is currently shipping chips compatible with the G.Lite DSL standard, the splitterless ADSL intended to simplify …

    Business 13 Nov 1998, 11:27

  • Intel to buy into Be

    Meanwhile, Be announces new version of OS, persuades Hitachi to ship PCs with it

    As Be officially announced the latest version of its multimedia OS and detailed Hitachi's decision to use it in its PCs, it emerged that Intel will next week announce it is taking a stake in the company. BeOS 4 is the first version of the operating system targetted at mainstream users as opposed to developers, the principal …

    Business 13 Nov 1998, 11:50

  • AMD predicts huge jump in turnover

    K6-2 and K6-7 to boost growth, claims CEO

    The CEO of chip company AMD said yesterday that he expected revenues to soar over the coming years as the company rolls out a range of new products. Jerry Sanders told financial analysts that sales next year could amount to $3.7 billion, rising to $4.4 billion in 2000 and nearly $6 billion in 2001, according to reports. The San …

    Business 13 Nov 1998, 11:55

  • Intel owns up to motherboard bug

    Claims BX2 problem now fixed

    Intel has confirmed that a bug in some motherboards it manufactures can cause machines to hang but claimed that the problem is now fixed. Certain SE 440 BX2 motherboards, dubbed Seattle 2, have a power glitch that scrambles BIOS settings and can damage the Flash BIOS. The bug has no effect on the processor, according to a …

    Business 13 Nov 1998, 12:13

  • Diamond to axe up to 180 jobs

    Low-margin products dropped, focus shifts to proprietary technologies, inventory brought under control

    Diamond Multimedia is to cut 20 per cent of its workforce -- 180 jobs -- in a move to cut costs. It will also be trimming its product line, shutting some offices and attempting to tighten control of its inventory, both in-house and in the channel. In fact, Diamond originally hoped tackling inventory problems would be sufficient …

    Business 13 Nov 1998, 12:25

  • VAT fraud investigations ramp

    This time its mobile phones

    Customs & Excise has ramped up its campaign against European VAT fraud and yesterday arrested 10 people accused of a £15 million mobile phone scam. The police and Customs seized both cash and mobile kit in a raid called Ginger, which also involved police in Germany, Denmark, Spain and Belgium. The department has now woken up to …

    Business 13 Nov 1998, 12:50

  • The MP3 scene comes of age

    Despite the best efforts of the RIAA, writes reader Nick Punt

    Roy Taylor's MP3 article is a little uninformed in certain areas. For instance, the MP3 technology (officially MPEG-1 layer 3), which has been used for music since early 1996, encodes audio in an 11:1 compression scheme. An average two minute file, uncompressed (either raw audio from a CD or WAV file) at 44.1kHz stereo takes up …

    Business 13 Nov 1998, 13:02

  • Microsoft moves Chromeffects onto back-burner

    Great Stan suspends development of Web graphics technology, perhaps to avoid antitrust trouble

    Microsoft has suspended the development of Chromeffects, its much-heralded Web-oriented 3D and multimedia technology. Technically, the technology isn't dead, but it's now seems highly unlikely it will see light of day in its current form. "We are stepping back and redesigning Chromeffects to better meet both our partner and …

    Business 13 Nov 1998, 13:15

  • Big Five chaebols slapped with Big Fines

    FTC – not that one – finds them guilty of subsidiary shenanigans

    The five largest chaebols (family concerns) in South Korea have had swingeing fines levied on them by the government’s Fair Trade Commission (FTC). The fines were levied because of illegal intersubsidiary trading, according to English language newspaper The Korea Herald. Hyundai came off worst, with a fine of 9.1 billion won, …

    Business 13 Nov 1998, 13:25

  • Second-stage PowerPC G4 details emerge

    Motorola to offer multi-core CPU at 1GHz early 2000

    Tantalising details have emerged of Motorola's plans for the forthcoming PowerPC G4 processor. According to information received by Apple-oriented Web site MacOS Rumors, the first G4 CPU, codenamed 'Max', is designed to push the transition between old, G3-based hardware and new systems designed specifically for G4. Max will be …

    Business 13 Nov 1998, 13:40

  • Sharp loses sense of humour as profits slump 86 per cent

    But are the two related?

    Sharp has not done well. Firstly, its interim net profit has fallen by 86 per cent for its half year. And, secondly, it has made itself look a laughing stock in the UK by paying chat-show host Clive Anderson £11,000 for speaking for 12 minutes to its salesmen at a gig in Gloucestershire. The Sharp Group said that its drop in …

    Business 13 Nov 1998, 15:38

  • Apology to Intel Corporation

    We had the facts all wrong

    At The Register we now believe that we have written wholly unjustifiable stories about large chip company Intel. Far from it being a raving, paranoid Satan that does what it likes to innocent companies, countries and individuals, we now believe that it is actually a caring, sharing community of fair minded people which has the …

    Business 13 Nov 1998, 15:58

  • Borland duped by fake accountess

    Calls for stricter checks on number cruncher

    A woman with one O level defrauded Reading-based software company Borland International UK of almost £90,000 and was only found out because of a misplaced digit. Ruther Ferraro, who lied on her CV to obtain the £64,500-a-year senior accountancy job, was jailed for 30 months for her crimes. The Register is a tad surprised that …

    Business 13 Nov 1998, 15:59

  • UK Webbees grow like Topsy

    But people are still sore about bandwidth, privacy, security...

    Seven million adults in the UK -- around 15 per cent of the 18+ population -- regularly use the Web and that figure is increasing by around 6000 a day, according to internetTrak research. The figures show that Web penetration in the UK is at the same level today as it was in the US two years ago and that during the last six …

    Business 13 Nov 1998, 16:07

  • Lycos and Tripod in three-legged race to attract advertisers

    £7.5 million invested in Web communities

    Advertisers and electronic retailers will be able to pitch their wares to specifically targeted Net audiences in the UK following a deal between Lycos Bertelsmann and Tripod. The tie-up is intended to attract a bigger share of the advertising spend on the net by offering companies "guaranteed 100 per cent accurate targeting for …

    Business 13 Nov 1998, 16:17

  • Viglen too sweet for Sugar

    Investors told to hold their nerve

    It seems Alan Sugar's eye for a good deal may have backfired in his bid to gain full control of his PC firm Viglen. His stake in the company is now around 42 per cent after paying out 24p a share - a price at which he feels the company is undervalued. With such a recommendation, Viglen's remaining shareholders are being advised …

    Business 13 Nov 1998, 16:19

  • Dell does bloody well

    Prophets of doom confounded as hardware Stan bounces

    PC company Dell showed IBM and Compaq its mettle today when it turned in Q3 profits of $384 million on equivalently buoyant increases in turnover. It made $384 million on turnover of $4.82 billion, an increase in profitability of 55 per cent. If its profitability and turnover increases, it will hit nearly $6 billion by the end …

    Business 13 Nov 1998, 16:20

  • Samsung readies fast floppy replacement

    But slower Zip, SuperDisk drives have plenty of time before its launched

    Samsung has announced a challenger to Iomega's 100MB Zip and Imation's SuperDisk in the high-capacity floppy disk replacement market. The Pro-FD uses 123MB diskettes, but retains compatibility with old 720K and 1.44MB floppies. So too does the 120MB SuperDisk drive, but like the Zip, Imation's system is slow. Samsung claims it …

    Business 13 Nov 1998, 16:38

  • Free watch for UK hacks as kit falls over

    Clock ticks as gravy train pulls to a halt

    Vendors selling Millennium Bug solutions are resorting to ever more bizarre stunts as the time for them to continue making money runs out. This time it is a watch which will expire. Meanwhile, the gravy train for PC manufacturers will roll on as companies, panicked by stories which vary from nuclear power stations going phut to …

    Business 13 Nov 1998, 16:49

  • iMac sales reviving?

    CompUSA says yes, but the market data's not so clear

    CompUSA has claimed that a mix of bundled peripherals and a hire purchase plan have revived flagging Apple iMac sales. The US retailer, the largest in the States, reported that last weekend saw iMac sales shoot back to their highest level since the machine's launch in the second week of August. Sales remained high through …

    Business 13 Nov 1998, 17:02

  • Modem business splits from Cirrus

    New company allows Cirrus to concentrate on core business

    Cirrus Logic Inc is to create a separate company to handle its PC modem business. Ambient Technologies Inc will acquire Cirrus' PC modem products and become a licensee of its patents. The modem business, which employs about 40 people, only accounts for about 6 per cent of Cirrus' consolidated revenue. Sold under its own name and …

    Business 13 Nov 1998, 17:16

  • ENTEX now nimble says CEO

    So what was it before?

    US reseller giant ENTEX Information Services -- is undergoing major reorganisation, in a bid to make itself more nimble. The creation of two new business divisions should be completed by the end of the year, the company said. With 1,500 employees, ENTEX's Technology Acquisition Services Division will continue to offer hardware …

    Business 13 Nov 1998, 17:19