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24th November 1998 Archive

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  • AOL takes shape as major threat to Microsoft

    Having the browser market tilt back towards Navigator is probably the least of Redmond's worries

    As Microsoft says, the proposed AOL-Netscape deal shows that the company’s enemies can band together to resist it, but although the deal may be welcome to Microsoft from a legal standpoint, the cold, hard figures show that otherwise it’s very bad news indeed. In the first half of this year Microsoft’s browser market share had …

    Business 24 Nov 1998, 10:37

  • ARM-based VLSI range to slash cordless phone prices

    DECT systems look increasingly poised to wipe out analogue cordless in Europe

    A new ARM-based family of DECT baseband processors from VLSI promises to take digital cordless telephony further into the commodity market. After a slow start DECT (Digital Enhanced Cordless Telephony) systems have started to sell in volume in Europe in the past year, and increased availability of powerful, low-cost chips will …

    Business 24 Nov 1998, 11:33

  • Netscape sued over price of proposed AOL merger

    The price isn't right, says litigious shareholder

    A Netscape shareholder has sued the company following official confirmation that it is indeed in meger talks with AOL. The proposed merger -- still dependent on the two companies reaching an agreement to do so -- values Netscape at nearly $4 billion, based on stock valued at $38.19 per share. However, Friday's closing price was …

    Business 24 Nov 1998, 12:09

  • Web league table identifies big four

    The rankings differ by sector, but overall they're virtually neck and neck

    Web ratings outfit Media Metrix rates AOL's Web sites achieving a narrow first over Yahoo in terms of unique visitors in October. The company's monthly survey measures the preferences of 62.5 million Web users and then categorises the major players among sites from there. With less than 200,000 unique visitors separating them, …

    Business 24 Nov 1998, 12:14

  • WAN vendors and carriers launch muiltservice standards body

    Interoperability specs to speed network roll-outs, increase competition and lower prices, promise players

    Cisco, MCI WorldCom, Lucent, BT, Nortel, Ascend and other WAN equipment vendors and telcos have agreed to form a body to oversee the development of interoperability standards. The Multiservice Switching Forum (MSF) will utilise standards already developed by the likes of the ATM Forum, the Internet Engineering Task Force, the …

    Business 24 Nov 1998, 12:50

  • Apple offers dealer sales reps cash incentives to push iMac

    Sell our kit and take away $30-50 per machine, offers Mac maker

    After spurning Apple in the past, resellers are trying to jump on the iMac bandwagon after it emerged the Mac-maker is lining up 'spiff' incentives for dealers' sales reps. Apple is trying to expand its channel presence, with the reports suggesting the vendor is to offer US sales reps $30 per iMac sold in retail stores and $50 …

    Business 24 Nov 1998, 12:58

  • QNX leads Citrix breakthrough into RTOS

    First real time OS manufacturing to support thin client system

    QNX has become the first RTOS (real time operating system) manufacturer to support a Citrix ICA client. The client will be available for QNX 4 and QNX/Neutrino, the former in Q1 and the latter following the release of QNX/Neutrino 2.0. QNX Software Systems (QSSL) has produced RTOS software for the x86 for over 17 years, and more …

    Business 24 Nov 1998, 13:19

  • Kawasaki to build second fab

    Plant to focus on computer network-oriented ASICs

    Japananse industrial combine Kawasaki Steel is to expand its chip-making operations with the construction of a $100 million fab that it intends will commence production in 2001. The plant, to be built alongside the company's current fab will be dedicated to ASIC production for telecommunications and consumer electronics devices …

    Business 24 Nov 1998, 13:27

  • Dixons demands tax relief on computer products

    ...as OFT officially opens PC pricing enquiry

    Dixons has suggested the government relax taxes on computers. The call comes after the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) yesterday launched its investigation into PC pricing. John Clare, the Dixons Group's chief executive, said he welcomed the enquiry, but suggested the UK government might follow other countries and offer tax relief …

    Business 24 Nov 1998, 13:36

  • Senior Japanese IT exec hits out at country’s greed

    Blames banks for giving big loans they can’t back up

    A senior executive at a major Japanese IT corporation has hit out at banks and companies funded by them for bringing the country to a "terrible" state. Yasuo Nishiguchi, executive vice president at Kyocera Corporation, said today: "As you know, the Japanese economy is in a terrible situation. We in Japan feel very badly about …

    Business 24 Nov 1998, 13:57

  • Major semiconductor R&D facility launched in Edinburgh

    $10 million plant offers labs, clean rooms for chip start-ups

    Edinburgh University is to host a focus for microelectronics and semiconductor start-ups within its science and engineering campus. The $10 million Scotland Microelectronics Centre (SMC) is a jointly-funded project between the university, Scottish Enterprise, and the Lothian and Edinburgh Enterprise Council. Scheduled to be …

    Business 24 Nov 1998, 15:06

  • Netscape deal founds Sun-backed ‘AOL Everywhere’ scheme

    Check the small print of the AOL-Sun alliance, folks -- didn't AOL do well?

    As expected, AOL and Netscape signed on the dotted in a $4.2 billion deal today, but the real news was the simultaneous announcement of a three-year AOL-Sun strategic alliance covering e-commerce and the development of "next generation Internet devices". Basically, AOL has hopped straight out of its Microsoft alliance and …

    Business 24 Nov 1998, 15:41

  • Survey: rosy future for smartcards

    Sales to grow from $1.4 billion to $6.8 billion over next four years, says Dataquest

    Chip-card market growth will be strongest in the US and Japan, but Europe will continue as the leading region, according to a four-year forecast by Dataquest. Asia/Pacific will become the number two region for chip card revenue by 2002, with 30 per cent of sales. Analysts predict US revenue to grow from about $20 million in 1997 …

    Business 24 Nov 1998, 15:44

  • Local papers group launches UK Net auction service

    Meanwhile, movie stars donate their smalls for charity bid-a-thon...

    One of the UK's largest regional newspaper groups is to launch a nationwide online auction service in January allowing ordinary people to buy and sell small items over the Web. Newsquest Media Group, which publishes 173 local paid-for and free newspapers and boasts a weekly readership of almost ten million, maintains that this …

    Business 24 Nov 1998, 15:52

  • DoJ witness argues Microsoft prices too high

    But he and the Microsoft attorney seem to be running an 'I know less about software than you' match

    Microsoft's cross-examination of consultant economist Dr Frederick Warren-Boulton by attorney Michael Lacovara for Microsoft has proceeded tediously this week. Microsoft is attempting to show that it does not have monopoly power, and is threatened by competitors all the time. Lacovara tried to needle W-B about his consultancy …

    Business 24 Nov 1998, 16:18

  • AOL deal sparks pundits day in court

    Will it or won't it? The jury's out - matter of fact, there's no jury anyway

    It was pundits day in and outside Judge Jackson's courtroom in Washington yesterday, following firmer news about the expected merger between AOL and Netscape. In the courtroom Michael Lacovara spent an hour quizzing Dr Frederick Warren-Boulton, a consultant economist for the DoJ, on what he thought of the AOL-Netscape move, but …

    Business 24 Nov 1998, 16:22

  • Kyocera pins hopes on Iridium, DDI

    Hopes to make itself global player

    Kyocera is re-engineering itself to take advantage of the explosion in the telecoms market. The company is pinning many of its future hopes on its subsidiary DDI, which has cellular network technology it can export, and on its involvement with the Iridium satellite mobile network, financed largely by Motorola. Last week, Kyocera …

    Business 24 Nov 1998, 16:24

  • UK government to legislate for e-commerce

    Electronic Commerce Bill could be law by summer

    New legislation is to be introduced to promote electronic commerce in the UK, the government has pledged in the Queen's Speech today. But some of the steps to be taken to start modernising the law and improve competitiveness in the digital marketplace are set to provoke controversy. Plans to allow the police access to private …

    Business 24 Nov 1998, 18:12