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25th March 1999 Archive

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  • Lou Gerstner's IBM loses it on ThinkPads, PCs

    $1 billion loss as Boots warns about WWW.SOMETHING.COM

    Big Blue has screwed up big time in the PC market and managed to lose $1 billion in that business in 1998. The company saw $1 billion of greenbacks slip out of its hands and into the pockets of competitors including Compaq, Dell and HP. The disastrous loss in its PC business means that it's now more likely than ever that IBM …

    Business 25 Mar 1999, 07:41

  • AMD K7 ripped asunder on Japanese site

    Technicians abuse the part and K6-III cuts in offing

    A Japanese site has published new pictures of the K7 part which take the slot apart and reveal new details. At the same time, rumours are growing that AMD will shortly announce 475MHz K6-III and slash prices of existing parts just a few days after the next Intel price cuts. The K7 pictures are here and are accompanied by …

    Business 25 Mar 1999, 08:02

  • A year ago: Intel, Compaq sail in choppy seas

    Great Stans less buoyant than before

    The mighty Intel caused tech stocks in the US to bob around like corks in the English Channel when it told the world that it would make less money in its current financial quarter than it had thought. But when Compaq, just a few days later, said it would only break even in its financial period, the whole of Wall Street went …

    Business 25 Mar 1999, 08:16

  • Germany contemplates its IT navel

    Analysis Schadenfreude, angst? German IT leaders got the lot

    Laptop and lederhosen are more closely integrated in Bavaria, the epicentre of the German IT industry, than in Hanover so it's surprising that CeBIT hasn't moved south to Munich. But there are increasing signs of resentment about this. CeBIT has become the biggest trade show in the world, with around 650,000 visitors, and has …

    Business 25 Mar 1999, 10:17

  • Gates trails antitrust deal – but is he stalling again?

    MS on Trial He claims talks, the states say nay, so is MS spinning?

    It's quiz time again: what have Sir David Frost, a forthcoming Microsoft dictionary, British merchant bankers Schroders, the Microsoft trial, Computer Weekly, Variety and Bill Gates in common? Well, Gates agreed to be interviewed yesterday at the Variety/Schroders media conference in New York (incorrectly referred to as the …

    Business 25 Mar 1999, 11:00

  • Blast from the Past: AMD powered missile hits Intel HQ in Baghdad

    100 days ago Has AMD fixed the Tomahawk timer chip yet?

    When Gulf War II started, we posted a story AMD powered missile hits Intel HQ in Baghdad Now that the Tomahawks have started flying again, we sincerely hope that the Cruise missiles raining down on Serbia have had the timer chip fixed. Especially since UK tabloids like the Sun tell us that they can be programmed from 1,000 miles …

    Business 25 Mar 1999, 11:19

  • South Koreans march against Bill Gates

    Move follows Korean FTC probe

    We picked this one up from Reuters yesterday and it dovetails nicely into our earlier story about the Korean Fair Trade Commission (FTC) investigating Microsoft. According to the report, over 1,000 dealers marched in Seoul to complain at the high prices of Win98 software in the country. The dealers are angry because at the same …

    Business 25 Mar 1999, 11:36

  • Surplus of SDRAM causes memory slump

    Rambus a good way off yet

    Prices of 64Mb/PC100 memory modules are continuing to drop daily, a memory distributor said today. And that follows a trend over the last two or three months where the price for a module has dropped from £90 to £60, according to Alan Stanley, UK MD of French memory company Dane-Elec. He said that while there were samples of …

    Business 25 Mar 1999, 12:10

  • Ericsson, Qualcomm settle CDMA differences

    Qualcomm CDMA biz bought by Ericsson

    Ericsson and Qualcomm will, later today, announce they have settled their differences over the future of Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) technology. They will agree to support a single world standard with three optional modes. And Ericsson will take over Qualcomm's CDMA infrastructure business which includes R&D facilities …

    Business 25 Mar 1999, 12:23

  • AOL tight-lipped as jobs are slashed

    It’s only hanging on to the talented people, it seems

    AOL has refused to say whether the UK will have to make any job cuts following yesterday's announcement in the US that around 1,000 jobs will be axed by the high-profile Internet company. A spokeswoman for AOL UK declined to comment on how yesterday's decision would affect the UK, insisting that all enquiries should instead be …

    Business 25 Mar 1999, 12:33

  • Egg and BT ClickFree to sell Fujitsu PCs

    Japanese vendor continues to shun the high street

    Never slow to spot a quirky channel opportunity, Fujitsu has teamed up with BT ClickFree and Egg, the savings and investment company owned by Prudential. The ClickFree site will offer three different Fujitsu PCs, which all come pre-loaded with ClickFree software. Customers of Egg will also be able to buy Fujitsu PCs from the Egg …

    Business 25 Mar 1999, 12:37

  • Dismemberment of Toshiba DRAM biz continues

    High end technology flies to Taiwan's Winbond

    Asian wires today are reporting that Taiwanese company Winbond Electronics is to manufacture a number of high end memory products for Toshiba. The technologies include .15 and .175 micron technology for 64Mbit, 128Mbit and 256Mbit memory chips, according to the reports. Winbond already makes some DRAM for the Japanese company …

    Business 25 Mar 1999, 12:44

  • Compaq to open multi-million Taiwan plant

    It's all to do with that supply management stuff

    Terry Shannon is reporting in his admirable CPQ-DEC newsletter Shannon knows Compaq that Mr Pfeiffer's organisation is set to spend millions of dollars on a plant in Taiwan. The move will help Mr Pfeiffer keep costs down in order to compete with his favourite bete noir, the hardware Dell from Hell. Late last year, we reported …

    Business 25 Mar 1999, 12:58

  • Compaq and Dell slug it out in war of words

    Tweedledum and Tweedledee agreed to have a battle; For Tweedledum said Tweedledee had spoiled his nice new rattle

    Have the good folk of Compaq UK finally gone mad? In an uncharacteristic outburst of pugilism, Compaq has blasted Dell for its ‘cut out the middleman’ ad campaign. It even went as far as projecting its own ads on the Dell UK headquarters in Bracknell on Tuesday evening, demanding that Dell comes clean about its attitude toward …

    Business 25 Mar 1999, 13:27

  • Corel pedals through product cycle lows

    But will Q2 be any better?

    Corel confirmed a bad first quarter yesterday. Revenue was $40.3 million, down from $45.5 million in the year-ago quarter. The loss of $14.6 million compares with $21.1 million a year ago. Corel has however managed to reduce its costs by 22 percent. The head count is 1,515. Corel finds itself in a product cycle low, with new …

    Business 25 Mar 1999, 14:17

  • Motorola to license M-Core processor

    Upcoming "major" licensing programme could shift Motorola chips into open source world

    Motorola is preparing to offer its M-Core line of embedded Risc processors to other developers through a wide-ranging licensing programme, The Register has learned. While licensing chip cores to third-parties isn't an entirely new venture for Motorola -- companies can already form partnerships based on the use of its 680x0-based …

    Business 25 Mar 1999, 15:16

  • Music industry sues MP3 search engine developer

    Engine host Lycos looks set to be taken to court too

    The music industry's anti-piracy organisation, the International Federation of Phonographic Industry (IFPI), is suing the company behind Lycos' MP3 Search service. Ironically, the service's Oslo, Norway-based developer, Fast, shares the same initials as the UK computer industry's answer to IFPI, the Federation Against Software …

    Business 25 Mar 1999, 15:50

  • Secret pact between Compaq, MS revealed

    We've heard about Win64, but what about NT 8 VMS?

    Sources close to both Microsoft and Compaq's plans have revealed the extent of their co-operation on future versions which are OpenVMS based. Eckhard Pfeiffer, CEO of Compaq, and Bill Gates, CEO of Microsoft, are continuing their plans to leave Intel out in the cold, our sources said. The "alliance" between Compaq and Microsoft …

    Business 25 Mar 1999, 16:25

  • Is Slot B on the AMD K7 copper, or what?

    What is the nature of this Alpha deal

    Robert Stead, European marketing director of AMD in Northern Europe, was keen to distance himself from any relationship with Compaq or copper technology, in the future. That much is on the record. But what is off the record is far more interesting. In the last three weeks we have shown slides demonstrating that Alpha promises to …

    Business 25 Mar 1999, 16:34

  • Apple to back Linux with dedicated manager

    Mac maker seeks hard working executive to ensure Linux runs great on its CPUs. Non-smoker preferred

    Apple's strategy regarding Linux appears to be beginning to take shape: the company has started searching for someone to oversee the work being done by distributors of PowerPC versions of the open source operating system. Apple has just posted a job application, discovered by Mac Web site MacInTouch, for anyone interested in …

    Business 25 Mar 1999, 16:48

  • The Register trapped in Yugoslav pincer movement

    And we do care...

    Not that we're paranoid. But did Nato have to choose Belgrade as the venue for its latest turkey shoot? Serb leader Slobodan Milosovic has called on Serbians worldwide to fight back against Nato aggression. This sounds like a call to car bombs. The Register should declare its interest, at this point. This could be AMD's chance …

    Business 25 Mar 1999, 17:08

  • Luftwaffe rises as SAP falls

    It's called irony

    Big German software company SAP said today that its pre-tax profit had fallen, even as German Luftwaffe planes were on the attack for the first time in 50 years. SAP said that returns on its enterprise resource planning (ERP) software were not as good as it hoped. As it issued the warning, German war planes were once again in …

    Business 25 Mar 1999, 17:19

  • UK high street clueless about Web

    Failing shareholders and customers alike by playing the ostrich

    The UK's top retailers have been slammed for ignoring for e-commerce - and middle-aged senior managers with little or no understanding of the issues are being blamed. Seven of the top 20 retailing groups in the UK have no Web site while only four companies mention e-commerce in their latest annual reports. According to Quidnunc …

    Business 25 Mar 1999, 17:21

  • The Register tests negative for Gates London meet

    Microsoft chief here to sign copies of his new book tomorrow.. but don’t tell anyone

    Bill Gates is in London tomorrow (Friday) to publicise his book Business@ the Speed of Thought and preach to business leaders who lack his unique business acumen. The man who spawned the Great Satan of Software will be at the Royal Lancaster Hotel, Lancaster Gate, W2 from noon onward - although entry to the oversubscribed book- …

    Business 25 Mar 1999, 17:27

  • Intel semi serious about cars

    It worxx, it really does...

    Florida company Intelliworxx (sic) said today it had entered the autombile industry using Intel technology. The FLA company has introduced a CarPC product, but the product is likely to receive damning praise from the UK government. Earlier on today, John Prescott, deputy CEO of UK plc, said that his company, sorry country, was …

    Business 25 Mar 1999, 17:56