4th January 1999 Archive

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Microsoft sues over ‘cybersquatting’

So if you registered edlin.com, sooner or later you've got trouble...

Two Texans are being sued by Microsoft over 'cybersquatting' - the registration of Internet domain names which it claims as its trademarks. The move by Gates' company is further evidence that the electronic frontier is slowly but surely being tamed. According to Microsoft's suit, the two have registered domain names relevant to …

Business 4 Jan 1999, 08:19
Spin and counterspin in MS-Bristol suit

Victory for both sides? Well, they both claim to be very pleased...

Both Microsoft and Bristol Technology spun merrily into the New Year after a judge's ruling that both sides could paint as a victory. Bristol, which is suing Microsoft claiming anticompetitive behaviour, was refused immediate access to Microsoft source code, but the judge threw out Microsoft's application for dismissal. The …

Business 4 Jan 1999, 08:39
Judge finds Windows 2000 may slip a millennium

Courts ruling you probably can't make your ship dates? Surely the ultimate humiliation...

Judge Janet Hall is of the opinion that NT 5.0 (aka Windows 2000) won't make it out of the door before the end of this year. And with a bit of luck, it'll slip into the next millennium. The Register believes this may be the first instance of a judge ruling on the viability of Microsoft's rollout schedules. Exquisitely, Judge …

Business 4 Jan 1999, 12:25
Microsoft eyes up BT's cable franchises

TV could be big break for Gates

Microsoft and British Telecom are refusing to comment on speculation that the software company is getting ready to buy two cable TV franchises from the telecoms giant. Reports at the weekend suggest that if the deal goes ahead, it would leave Microsoft free to hook millions of homes onto the Internet giving the company an …

Business 4 Jan 1999, 14:02
C&W buys German ISP for £27.5 million

European explansion going according to plan

Cable & Wireless plc has bought German Internet Service Provider (ISP) ECRC Network Services for £27.5 million as part of its recently announced £1 billion five-year plan to build a European super network. The deal is expected to give the company direct access to the German corporate and wholesale Internet markets and according …

Business 4 Jan 1999, 14:27
Micromuse founder spends New Year in jail

In custody until Thursday - crack seized, allegedly

The millionaire founder of London-based reseller Micromuse is languishing in a Guernsey prison cell following a post-Christmas drugs raid. According to reports in yesterday's Mail On Sunday, Christopher Dawes was arrested on the neighbouring Channel Island of Alderney after a £1.5 million spending spree was cut short by a Boxing …

Business 4 Jan 1999, 14:49
Gateway sub ALR Newbury shuts

Stock will now come from Elsewhere

Most of the staff at Gateway subsidiary ALR UK were laid off last Wednesday as the direct PC company reorganised its activities. A source at the company told The Register today: "The managing director [Julian Neath] was told to give people their redundancy agreements last Wednesday." He said: "The staff knew it was going to …

Business 4 Jan 1999, 15:02
Updated: IBM will make K7s too

Plot thickens by the day

Although on the face of it IBM and AMD have no cross licensing deal on x.86 technology, it now appears that Big Blue will make K7 chips. The complex cross licensing technology on copper technology -- which exclusively prevents Intel from using it -- is likely to lead to boards from IBM later in the year. Last week The Register …

Business 4 Jan 1999, 15:14
Careless whisper makes big splash

intro

Goatee-bearded crooner George Michael isn't quite the child-and-PC-loving philanthropist The News of the World would like to make him out to be. In their first edition of the New Year, the News of the Screws devoted several inches (that’s column inches) to claims that Michael was donating £4.7 million of his hard earned cash so …

Business 4 Jan 1999, 15:15
AMD on verge of further K7 desktop wins

Compaq just the first, says source

The Digital Anvil, AMD and Microsoft connection is to deliver further desktops using the K7 platform in Q3 1999, we can reveal. The source that told The Register last week of the copper interconnect K7 in Y2K with a 400MHz bus, today revealed it has several other customers interested in its products. He said: "I don’t think [the …

Business 4 Jan 1999, 16:09
LG Semicon hanging on Seoul thread

Company in UK on "tenterhooks"

Sources at LG Semicon in Newport, Gwent, today said that any decisions on restructuring still depended on discussions at its head office in Seoul, Korea. The South Korean government has insisted that both LG Semicon and Hyundai's semiconductor division merge, but both companies missed the end of year deadline it set. The source …

Business 4 Jan 1999, 16:37
Compaq firmly denies exit from networking

Rubbishes US stories

A senior executive at Compaq UK described US press reports of it exiting the networking business as rubbish. Richard Brown, product marketing manager of the networking division at Compaq UK, said: "We have re-organised the business and taken network interface cards (NICs) and modems into the business they belong in." He said …

Business 4 Jan 1999, 16:53
Xaar makes no sales in 1998

Blames slow down in Japanese economy

Cambridge-based printer and plotter manufacturer, Xaar, has failed to sell any new licences in 1998. Xaar licences its technology to printer manufacturers - most of which are Japanese companies. It usually sells around two such agreements per year, but failed to sell any in 1998, mostly due to the slow down in the Japanese …

Business 4 Jan 1999, 16:56
Zut Alors! Compaq France still in talks

How many French hens are there?

Sources close to Compaq France told The Register late today that it was still attempting to solve its redundancy situation in the country. Last week, we reported that 1,400 Compaq-DEC jobs could be on the line as part of a widespread restructuring across Europe. (Story: Now France gets Santa Pfeiffer treatment) But a …

Business 4 Jan 1999, 17:34
Cyan not a pepper for NatSemi

Don't journalists know how to spell?

We have to confess we got a little angst-ridden over Xmas with schadenfreude coming out of our boots... A quick look at the wires described a big NatSemi deal as the Cyan .15 micron chip. We thought we'd lost it but we hadn't. It turned out that the publishing company which dare not speaketh its name (Ziff Davis) had mistaken …

Business 4 Jan 1999, 21:40
Adobe to buy GoLive

Popular Web design tool to help fill out Adobe's patchy product line

Adobe is set to announce its acquisition of Web page design software developer GoLive tomorrow. Sources claim the deal is done and dusted and is simply awaiting final clearance from "Adobe's legal machine" before the takeover can be announced officially. The financial terms of the deal are not known. GoLive has achieved much …

Business 4 Jan 1999, 23:15