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21st December 1998 Archive

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  • A year ago: Intel to slash PII prices next month – 233MHz this month

    Santa Clara doesn’t believe in Santa Claus

    The pesky OEMs who for some treason don’t think Intel is all heart, tell us that there are huge PII prices coming early, rather than later in January next year. According to our source, Intel was going to slash prices towards the end of January but has now brought its cunning plans forward. Indeed, as we went to press, we were …

    Business 21 Dec 1998, 08:12

  • Acer attempting to sell semi division

    But Stan Shih struggling to turn the company round

    Sources close to Acer have indicated that more troubles are ahead for the Taiwanese company, following a profit warning the company made two weeks ago. The 44 per cent profit target for 1998 conceals further problems at Acer, the source said. Earlier this year, Stan Shih, CEO of the company, said that he was taking over the …

    Business 21 Dec 1998, 10:39

  • Intel poo-poos 100MHz Front Side Bus Celeron

    Doesn't mean it won't do it though

    Intel said today that reports it was producing 366MHz and 400MHz Celerons with Front Side Bus speeds of 100MHz were spurious. As reported here last week, that doesn't mean that Intel will not produce 100MHz FSB Celerons. Both AMD and Intel have collided over Front Side Buses recently. (Story: AMD, Intel locked in bus war) It's …

    Business 21 Dec 1998, 10:47

  • ST Microelectronics to buy half of Mitsubishi's flash

    And Hitachi to flog its silicon wafer side

    Reports in Eurotrade said that Mitsubishi Electric will sell half its German flash memory capacity to French company ST Microelectronics (formerly SGS Thomson). According to the same report, Hitachi will sell its wafer production to company Shin-Etsu Chemical in April of next year. That story was reported earlier this year but …

    Business 21 Dec 1998, 10:52

  • 3Com pumps up Palm platform with wireless stake

    Teams up with wireless software firm to promote handhelds to business users.

    Networking giant 3Com is boosting its Palm software capabilities by taking a $6 million stake in little-known Aether Technologies. Aether develops software for connecting mobile computing devices to wireless networks, something 3Com is interested in using to enhance its already successful PalmPilot handheld computer. Sales of …

    Business 21 Dec 1998, 11:19

  • Now Samsung and Daewoo at hammer and tongs

    More chaebol trouble hits South Korea

    A bitter row has broken out between mighty South Korean chaebols Samsung and Daewoo over the proposed transfer of their car and electronic industries. Over last weekend, South Korea president Kim fired one of his ministers for objecting to Samsung exchanging its auto division for Daewoo's electronic division. And Daweoo staff …

    Business 21 Dec 1998, 11:29

  • Oasis' record label to distribute MP3 singles free via Web

    Net tracks to be posted a month ahead of CD single release

    UK independent record label Creation Records has decided to begin posting its singles on its Web site a month before they reach the shops. Creation, which handles the likes of Oasis, the Jesus and Mary Chain, Bob Mould and now Ronnie Spector, will begin offering singles for download free of charge early in the new year. Not all …

    Business 21 Dec 1998, 11:53

  • Intel makes Scrooge-like Celeron pricing decision

    Company described as “deeply cynical"

    Intel’s decision to introduce far more powerful 366MHz and 400MHz Celerons on the fourth of January was described as “deeply cynical” today. The chip giant has advertised the previous versions of the Celeron processor extensively in the run-up to the Christmas period, but will slash the prices of its 300MHz and 333MHz parts when …

    Business 21 Dec 1998, 12:21

  • Register WebCam

    Updated regularly during office hours

    You can expect to see the following characters: Tony Smith, Drew Cullen, Mike Magee, John Lettice, Justine Boland, Linda Harrison, Sean Fleming and Tim Richardson

    Business 21 Dec 1998, 12:35

  • Rise to announce Socket 370 breakthrough

    Will announce its fab partner this week

    Chip clone company Rise is expected to announce this week that it has signed a deal with a third party to provide fab facilities which will allow it to make Socket 370 parts next year. Rise, which has its HQ in Santa Clara, is one of around 150 or so "fabless" companies and the deal will represent something of a breakthrough for …

    Business 21 Dec 1998, 13:42

  • Handset vendors buy in expertise

    Motorola wants digital crown from Nokia

    Motorola is to buy Lucent Technologies’ handset development unit in an attempt to boost flagging digital phone sales. The deal will see Lucent's consumer wireless phone operations go for an estimated $200 million, according to reports in today’s Wall Street Journal Europe. Motorola will hope to put Lucent’s technology to good …

    Business 21 Dec 1998, 13:44

  • Virtual Internet reverses into Charriol

    £15 million price tag for Net services company

    Charriol plc -- an AIM-listed company -- is coughing up £15 million for Virtual Internet in a bid to reposition itself as an Internet services group. The deal is in effect a reverse takeover by Virtual, as Charriol is a shell...existing as a company in name only. Founded two years ago by Jason Drummond, Virtual Internet provides …

    Business 21 Dec 1998, 13:47

  • Govt investment to make ‘no impact’ on hi-tech start-ups

    DTI simply robbing Peter to pay Paul

    The government has hit back at criticism that its proposed £50 million Enterprise Fund will only yield around £6 million for venture capital investment in hi-tech start-up companies. In a report in today's Financial Times, the newspaper said only £6 million would be available for venture capital investment in the hi-tech sector …

    Business 21 Dec 1998, 13:48

  • Microsoft plays smart card leapfrog

    Bankrolls De La Rue co-operation, according to UK press leak

    Microsoft will literally have a licence to print money if joint venture talks with De La Rue come off. The software giant is prepared to take a "strategic stake" in De La Rue to underwrite the co-operation of Europe’s biggest banknote printer in developing Windows for Smart Cards. De La Rue is big in bank note printing (a …

    Business 21 Dec 1998, 14:16

  • Demob happy Court shows pointers to Microsoft Trial verdict

    Our Graham is surprised by Judge Jackson's AOL Netscape ruling

    Some subtle messages from Judge Jackson have been overlooked in the general end-of-term atmosphere in Washington. Judge Jackson has started referring to "Gates" and not to "Mr Gates". Such subtleties are found in criminal trials in the UK when after a verdict of guilty, the prisoner is referred to by surname only. Fancy that. On …

    Business 21 Dec 1998, 14:49

  • Recyclers call for EU directive to be scrapped

    Plans are too costly and too vague to work

    The recycling body ICER (Industry Council for Electronic Equipment Recycling) has hit out at the proposed EU directive affecting PC recycling, warning it could cost vendors and retailers £500 million a year. The industry body also claims the directive, which aims to reduce environmental damage through discarded electrical and …

    Business 21 Dec 1998, 14:59

  • Microsoft Trial: those depositions keep rolling in

    Evidence from Caldera, Disney, Sun, NCI and the usual OEMs

    With time on its hands, the court turned to videotapes to entertain itself for a couple of days until it could decently sneak away for the holiday season. A peculiarity of the US legal system is that by agreement both the plaintiffs (the DoJ or the states) and the defendant (Microsoft) can question a witness who is being deposed …

    Business 21 Dec 1998, 15:16

  • Disney roughed up by 1,000 pound gorilla in browser negotiations

    Unable to link to Netscape

    Steve Wadsworth, VP of Buena Vista Internet Group, a subsidiary of Walt Disney from 1995 until 1998, was deposed by Sandy Roth of the DoJ San Francisco Division. Roth said that Bill Spencer, Disney's account rep, described the windows desktop as "Microsoft's crown jewel" during negotiations. He also bragged that "AOL gets most …

    Business 21 Dec 1998, 15:21

  • Slapped wrists for EDS

    Delays to housing benefit payments lead to compensation pay out

    Outsourcing and services giant EDS has agreed to compensate a UK local authority following a series of blunders. EDS has been running housing benefit payments on behalf of the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames since last year. The system fell into near collapse earlier this year with delays in payments becoming so protracted …

    Business 21 Dec 1998, 15:22

  • SCO ‘forced out of desktop market’, deposition reveals

    Identified as OS competitor

    Wayne Bergland is VP of US field sales for SCO and was subpoenaed in August by the DoJ. The main points he made were that SCO had had to get out of the desktop business because of Microsoft's competitive practices and now concentrated on the server market. SCO's five largest OEM licensees were Siemens, Compaq, Lucent, Unisys and …

    Business 21 Dec 1998, 15:26

  • NCI dislikes proprietary standards

    No freedom to innovate,firm says in trial deposition

    David Limp, the VP of marketing for Network Computers Inc, was subpoenaed by Microsoft and interrogated in July by Stephanie Wheeler for Microsoft. In effect, Limp gave her a brief tutorial, and in answer to a question made the case for a GUI being optionally part of an operating system, preferring himself to think of it being …

    Business 21 Dec 1998, 15:30

  • Caldera reveals OpenLinux OEM distribution problems

    Another Microsoft deposition corker

    Bryan Sparks, CEO of Caldera, was deposed by Richard Pepperman for Microsoft in July in Salt Lake City. Sparks admitted that Caldera had encountered problems trying to distribute OpenLinux through OEMs, although since his testimony was taken, the situation may well have changed. It seemed from Sparks' testimony that Microsoft …

    Business 21 Dec 1998, 15:37

  • OEMs toe Microsoft line

    PB, HP and Dell have their say in MS depositions

    PACKARD BELL NEC Mal Ransom of Packard Bell NEC was subpoenaed in August by the DoJ and cheerfully admitted in his deposition that PBN pre-installs 100 per cent of its PCs with Windows 98, but just occasionally it slips out a few PCs with Navigator instead of IE. He subsequently said that PBN could sometimes ship "a proprietary …

    Business 21 Dec 1998, 15:45

  • Sun puts in the boot with Microsoft trial deposition

    Argues over integration

    Brian Croll, director of product marketing for Sun's Solaris, was subpoenaed by Microsoft. He gave away nothing to his Microsoft inquisitor, who turned out to be Theodore Edelman (described in Microsoft's Slate webzine as "vampire-like"), the man who also failed to break Avie Tevanian of Apple. Microsoft was trying to show that …

    Business 21 Dec 1998, 15:50

  • Compaq goes server crazy. But which chip? And which flowerpot?

    Is it Bill (Alpha) or is it Ben (Intel)?

    Compaq is set to release a veritable bevy of servers first thing in the New Year but will be compromised by the fact that both Alpha and Intel processors are used. US magazine Infoworld breached an apparent embargo last Friday by publishing details of the servers, which will also include a workstation or two as well -- of Alpha …

    Business 21 Dec 1998, 16:09

  • Barclays signs CyberCash for e-commerce authorisation

    As digital cash system fails to find favour, Barclays credit cards taking off PDQ

    Barclays Merchant Services (BMS), the division of Barclays Bank that handles credit card transactions, has signed US digital money company CyberCash to supply secure payment software for BMS' forthcoming Internet payment system, ePDQ. BMS is probably better known to consumers as PDQ (Pretty Damn Quick), the brand name of its in- …

    Business 21 Dec 1998, 16:26

  • Taiwan in turmoil over preferred lists

    Will the government go for the WTO or for the USA?

    The island of Taiwan is preparing itself for further pressure from Red China by preparing lists of foreign companies it favours as potential investors. At the end of next year, the tiny peninsula of Macau will be relinquished by the Portuguese to the authorities on the mainland, in the wake of frenzied gang attacks by triads. …

    Business 21 Dec 1998, 16:51

  • Carrera careers ahead

    Relocation holds key to new jobs

    Carrera is promising one of the UK’s most significant IT job creation schemes when it relocates to north London next year. The UK vendor will invest over £1.5 million in its headquarters shift and expects to create more than 100 new jobs over the next three years. It plans to open two more retail technology centres after the …

    Business 21 Dec 1998, 16:56

  • PSINet blames Energis for network problems

    Quit whingeing and pull your finger out, say customers

    PSINet -- one of the world's largest corporate Internet service providers (ISPs) -- has said problems that have been dogging its network will be resolved today. An engineer from Energis -- the telecoms network provider -- is currently working to fix problems that have brought frustration and disruption to business customers over …

    Business 21 Dec 1998, 17:02

  • AMD says it will take on Intel on notebook front

    Made market gains in the last six months

    Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), which manufactures clone x.86 processors, said today it will take on chip mammoth Intel in the notebook market next year. Rana Mainee, European market research analyst, responding to the introduction of a whole clutch of Celeron PII/mobiles next year -- as previously revealed here -- said Intel's …

    Business 21 Dec 1998, 17:10

  • Computer piracy is sinful, says Israeli court

    Vatican agrees in welcome show of unity at Christmas

    Copying software illegally -- or even buying it -- could spell religious trouble for those involved. This news comes after a religious court in Israel ruled that piracy was now officially a sin. A report in The Jerusalem Post said the rabbinical court of the ultra-Orthodox Eda Haredit movement has ruled that copying computer …

    Business 21 Dec 1998, 17:14

  • PC prices crash in US

    But is the UK next?

    PC prices have fallen through the floor in the US prompting speculation that the UK could be hit by a price war in the new year. The cost of a PC plummeted to an all time low in November as a third of all consumer machines sold cost less than $800, according to market researchers PC Data Corp. Registering a drop of seven per …

    Business 21 Dec 1998, 17:31

  • NatSemi's Fairchild buys Samsung wafer unit and staff

    Deal worth $455 million -- and staff

    Samsung has received an unexpected injection of cash from a semiconductor company. Fairchild Semiconductor bought Samsung's high value power device wafer fabs in the South Korean peninsula for $455 million. Design staff are also included in the deal. National Semiconductor (NatSemi) bought Fairchild in conjunction with some VCs …

    Business 21 Dec 1998, 17:48

  • Datrontech flogs training arm

    Varies RD Trading buyout terms

    Datrontech Group is continuing to tidy its straggling businesses by offloading its IT training arm less than two years after buying it. The £4.2 million cash sale of Expertise Group to Dalkeith Inns aims to reduce the component distributor's borrowings and move it closer to its core businesses of PC distribution and networking. …

    Business 21 Dec 1998, 17:59

  • HP slashes PC prices across the board

    Notebooks, servers, desktops, you name it

    Hewlett Packard has taken pre-emptive action against its rivals IBM and Compaq and taken the axe to a number of its product lines by as much as 20 per cent. The cuts cover corporate PCs, its Brios, its Kayak workstations, its Omnibooks and some of its high end server products. Said HP, it can now sell a VE corporate machine with …

    Business 21 Dec 1998, 17:59

  • IBM set to rejoin PowerPC triumvirate over AltiVec support

    Microelectronics division comes back to Motorola, Apple way of thinking

    IBM looks set to adopt Motorola's AltiVec PowerPC extensions after all. Quoted in an interview with EE Times, Mike Attardo, general manager of IBM's Microelectronics Division, said the two companies will soon "come to a solution" to their eight-month disagreement over the technology. Motorola first announced AltiVec, a set of …

    Business 21 Dec 1998, 18:12