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1st April 1999 Archive

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  • eBay rival offers 12,000 free PCs

    What's the catch? There isn't one, apparently

    Would-be eBay Internet auctioneer NuAuction.com has become the latest Web-based business to jump onto the free PC -- or, more accurately, the PC-for-spam -- bandwagon. NuAuction is to offer 12,000 free computers to anyone who registers their name, address, phone number and email details with the company, and is willing to put up …

    Business 1 Apr 1999, 09:37

  • Nine loves of Bill Gates revealed

    Sources tell us all

    We've been meaning to write the book The Nine Loves of Bill Gates for at least nine years. Just never got round to it, so we thought we'd write the news story first, as a sort of taster for the full thing. Love One. This is when Bill introduced Windows for the first time in 1983, faced with tough competition from Digital …

    Business 1 Apr 1999, 09:37

  • Corel WordPerfect bundling deal unveiled

    Hong Kong motherboard manufacture the partner, not a "major PC vendor", as promised

    Let it never be said that The Register doesn't 'fess up when its speculation doesn't come match up to the actions a company finally takes. Though in legal cases, we will always maintain that reality is at fault. Corel's "major" deal with a "leading PC vendor" turned out to be nothing more than an agreement to get motherboard …

    Business 1 Apr 1999, 09:38

  • Register bids to buy CMP and Techweb

    We want the lot and we don't mind paying

    We can now confirm that The Register has put a bid in to buy the whole of CMP. CMP, which has stacks of magazines all across the world as well as the very famous newmedia site TechWeb, put itself up for sale earlier this year. And now we can confirm it is taking our bid -- worth one dollar -- seriously. No one from CMP was …

    Business 1 Apr 1999, 09:38

  • Memsolve meeting put off by two weeks

    Creditors seek more time to prepare

    Memsolve's winding up hearing was adjourned yesterday for two weeks. The petition on behalf of distributor Northamber had not been completed to requirements, according to a representative at BDO Stoy Hayward. The hearing is now due to take place on 14 April, again at The Royal Courts of Justice, London. Administrators from BDO …

    Business 1 Apr 1999, 09:40

  • Future server I/O co-operation talks collapse

    Intel to bomb IBM?

    Intel and IBM have both walked away from talks aimed at brokering a compatibility agreement between the two companies' proposed server interconnect technologies. According to a report in EE Times, the discussions hit "insurmountable sticking points". Specifically, the Intel-backed Next Generation I/O (NGIO) Forum were not keen …

    Business 1 Apr 1999, 09:40

  • Pino Collapso – another distributor bites the dust

    Manchester-based components distie adds its name to receivership roll call

    Pino Computers, the PC component distributor, has gone into administrative receivership. Vincent Simmons and Alan Tomlinson, from AH Tomlinson, were appointed administrative receivers at the Manchester-based outfit on 23 March. This leaves only two other components distributors in the Manchester area: CCM and VIP Computer Centre …

    Business 1 Apr 1999, 09:43

  • MS trial schedules slips towards 2000

    MS on Trial And The Register opens its 'predict the result day' competition

    The Microsoft trial will resume no earlier than 10 May, because Judge Jackson's criminal case is running longer than expected. It had been anticipated that Microsoft would be back in court around 12 April. If the judge's other case has not finished by 10 May, then the Microsoft trial will restart on the first Monday after the …

    Business 1 Apr 1999, 09:45

  • Murky financials may haunt AOL, Netscape, Sun deal

    The complex arrangements seem to have a lot to do with what you'd call tax mitigation strategies

    We expressed some scepticism about the commercial viability of the AOL-Netscape (plus Sun) deal when it was announced, and it now seems that our concern was indeed justified. Part of the rationale for the deal centres on some accounting practices connected with pooling rules that are in the process of being scrapped by the …

    Business 1 Apr 1999, 09:47

  • Fake ASUS motherboards circulate in Europe

    5,000 found in France

    A hardware site is reporting that over 5000 counterfeit ASUSTeK P2B motherboards are being distributed in France. According to Hardware Fr, the motherboards come from a Chinese factory. The site says you can recognise fakes because the rev number on the PCB is 1.04. That's a version that ASUSTeK discontinued at the end of 1998. …

    Business 1 Apr 1999, 09:59

  • Liquidators appointed at Roldec

    Time runs out for Brummie mail-order reseller

    Troubled reseller Roldec went into liquidation at a creditors’ meeting in Birmingham yesterday. Joe Atkinson, of Deloitte & Touche, and Brian Hamblin, of Pannell Kerr Forster, were appointed joint liquidators at the Deloitte & Touche offices at Colmore Row, Birmingham. Roldec went down owing around £2 million to creditors, …

    Business 1 Apr 1999, 10:20

  • nVidia, Guillemot to pre-sell Riva TNT2s

    Claims massive pre-demand

    nVidia said it had a struck a deal with the retail chain Electronics Boutique to pre-sell graphics cards using the TNT2 3D chip. The move follows a similiar pre-ordering deal struck between nVidia arch-rival 3dfx, now selling boards under its own name, and retail chains CompUSA and BestBuy. Prices start at $150 and Nvidia said …

    Business 1 Apr 1999, 10:21

  • Apple UK MD scoots off

    Molynuex to join Yellow Pages wannabe Scoot.com in June

    Apple UK chief Jon Molyneux is to quit the company to join Internet-based products and services directory service Scoot.com as its MD. Molyneux joined Apple in 1986 as a sales rep after a four-year stint with Acorn, a relationship that helped him form the company's education-oriented joint venture with Acorn, Xemplar. Apple took …

    Business 1 Apr 1999, 10:31

  • Chip market showed steep decline in 1998

    Survey Japanese companies show steepest fall

    Dataquest's annual report on the semiconductor market said that worldwide demand for chips fell to its lowest level since 1985. In 1998, revenues worldwide were $134.8 billion, a drop of 8.4 per cent from the year before, the market research company said. One of the biggest reasons for the decline was oversupply of DRAM products …

    Business 1 Apr 1999, 10:37

  • British Queen to beg Koreans for more money

    Visits chaebols in April

    A report in the Korean press said that Queen Elizabeth II, who visits the country this month, is to ask the top five chaebols (family concerns) to invest more money in the UK. According to the report, in the Korean Herald, she will ask leaders from Samsung, Hyundai, LG and Daewoo for additional investments. There are fears that …

    Business 1 Apr 1999, 10:52

  • Bullish mood continues as Skillsgroup makes third acquisition

    Cap Gemini’s training arm folded into QA Training

    Skillsgroup has bought the business and assets of Cap Gemini’s UK training division. The IT training company paid £32.5 million - in cash on completion from existing resources - for the unit. This latest deal is Skillsgroup’s third acquisition in a month. Since shedding the reseller businesses of its P&P divisions, Skillsgroup …

    Business 1 Apr 1999, 10:57

  • ATI quick to Rage at WinHEC

    Performance boost of 30 per cent

    ATI is expected to announce an optimised version of its Rage 128 graphics chip at next week's WinHEC. The chips will have a 30 per cent improvement in both memory clock speed and engine, with the set-up engine doubled. The chips will also incude anisotropic filtering (what that? Ed) and have additional support for flat panel …

    Business 1 Apr 1999, 11:10

  • IDC predicts Linux growth to beat all other OSes

    Survey And we knew it would all along, too, claims research company

    Shipments of Linux into the client and server operating system marketplaces will grow faster than any other OS between now and 2003, according to a report from market researcher IDC. The company reckons commercial shipments of the open source OS will increases at an annual compound rate of 25 per cent from 1999 to 2003, …

    Business 1 Apr 1999, 11:13

  • Gates eyes China as US pressure mounts

    He contemplated India

    Rumours are circulating that Bill Gates is considering moving his software company into Red China if the heat in the US kitchen rises much more. It would remove, at a stroke, any difficulties he has in the US, according to Register reader Jens Boss. He claims that Gates has his emergency exit already in place and that the …

    Business 1 Apr 1999, 11:13

  • AOL bigger than Disney – official

    Who’s the leader of the gang that's made for you and me

    It reads like an April Fool’s Day gag, but it isn't. US investors have been so overcome with enthusiasm for anything to do with the Web that America Online is now worth more than Walt Disney, Viacom and CBS combined, according to today's Financial Times. Walt Disney himself must be spinning in his grave, Mickey and Donald must …

    Business 1 Apr 1999, 11:15

  • Silicon Graphics Q3 loss to widen fourfold

    Senior execs prepare to fall on their swords

    Troubled workstation vendor Silicon Graphics (SGI) yesterday warned that its third-quarter (which itself ended yesterday) loss will be wider than it had earlier predicted. Wall Street analysts have been expecting a seven cents a share loss for the quarter, but SGI, without mentioning specific loss predictions, said that it would …

    Business 1 Apr 1999, 11:28

  • E-business to promote European single market

    Survey Internet will expose areas that need reform

    A report from market research company Forrester said that e-commerce is likely to accelerate market harmonisation in Europe. According to the report, Europe's eZones, progress towards the single market is tardy because of an unwillingness to change regulatory environments and through established trading patterns. But e-commerce …

    Business 1 Apr 1999, 11:37

  • Dixons cuts PC prices to less than £400

    PC price war escalates with high street giant's latest offer

    Dixons has started selling a sub-£400 PC, but it will only be available over the Easter weekend. Available at PC World, Dixons and Currys, the Patriot MII 300 PC costs £399 including VAT and will be sold from today to 5 April. The cheap PC comes with Cyrix MII 300 chip, 2.1GB hard disk, 32MB RAM, 512K L2 cache, 32x CD-ROM drive …

    Business 1 Apr 1999, 11:43

  • Writs fly as Aureal countersues Creative Technologies

    A year ago Company claims it wants to fight in market, not courts

    Posted 7 April 1998 A Californian chip company has filed a counterclaim against Singapore firm Creative Technology. Aureal claims that Creative, and subsidiary E-MU Systems, intentionally interefered with its business prospects, defamed it, commercially disparaged it, engaged in unfair competition and acted fraudulently. …

    Business 1 Apr 1999, 11:53

  • Yellow Dog ships eponymous Mac Linux distribution

    But there's still no support for the latest G3 Macs

    Mac software developer TerraSoft Solutions' subsidiary Yellow Dog has begun to ship its first Linux distribution, Champion Server. Yellow Dog Linux is specifically aimed at Apple's PowerPC 750-based Macs, including the iMac and the PowerBook G3 line. The software will run on older PCI-based Macs and clones, but these …

    Business 1 Apr 1999, 11:53

  • Gang of Twelve IT CEOs takes shape

    Cisco's CEO joins HP's Platt in strange coalition but Gates left out.

    If a monopoly does exist in the IT world, it must surely apply to networking companies, and their allies. Intel, let off by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) a few weeks ago, made a brave bid to become successful in the networking industry, but no-one yet knows where that will lead. Surely the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) …

    Business 1 Apr 1999, 15:52

  • Kyocera rejigs management to reverse situation

    Management changes afoot

    An outspoken vice president of Japanese Kyocera Corporation has been promoted to effective head of the corporation. Yasuo Nishiguchi is now president of the corporation, while Kensuke Itoh has been replaced by Nishiguchi. Inamori San, who formed the corporation and believes in ceramic technology, remains chairman Emeritus. …

    Business 1 Apr 1999, 16:20

  • Hitachi makes huge lay-offs

    Japanese firm bites bullet with ten per cent layoffs

    Hitachi has made an executive decision to lay off ten per cent of its staff worldwide, according to London evening newspaper The Standard. The decision will be welcomed by Hitachi's investors but is unlikely to be received well at home. Hitachi is one of Japan's biggest employers, along with Fujitsu and Mitsubishi. The brave …

    Business 1 Apr 1999, 16:22

  • Russian chip scientist Babaian outlines Elbrus future

    Exclusive Everyone is afraid to compete with Intel, he says

    Professor Boris Babaian said today that he needed venture capital support to show the world his superior chip architecture to Merced. At the same time, Babaian laughed at the April Fool's Joke slashdot.org perpetrated about Linus Torvald joining his company because Finland and Russia were close, geographically. Babaian, a man …

    Business 1 Apr 1999, 16:45

  • Taiwanese firm loses Dual

    Distie goes to the wall

    Dual Technology ceased trading in the UK yesterday. The notebook distributor was part of the Taiwanese notebook manufacturer Dual Group. A recorded message at the Cambridge offices was today informing callers of Dual’s shut down. Customers were being re-directed to the Taiwanese-based Web site regarding warranty issues. Dual had …

    Business 1 Apr 1999, 17:08