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29th July 1999 Archive

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  • Gates tops share sale list, but foundations are shallow

    Older charitable operations eclipse His Billness' do-goodery

    Bill Gates is known for his obsessive competitiveness, but he has some way to go to win all the records so far as his wealth is concerned. Gates sold more stock in the first half of 1999 than any other executive - $2.523 billion - but the significance is not great since he still holds around 980 million shares worth about $88 …

    Business 29 Jul 1999, 09:42

  • BT reveals ADSL roll-out plan

    Ten UK cities earmarked for high speed network

    London, Cardiff and Edinburgh are among 10 cities earmarked by BT to be equipped with ADSL technology by March 2000. BT made the announcement early this morning in a statement outlining its plans to make "Britain a world leader in the information revolution". The announcement adds substance to earlier leaked reports about BT's …

    Business 29 Jul 1999, 09:46

  • Rambus to win memory war

    Neat technology and Intel muscle will seize the day

    PC133 may be winning the memory battle, but it certainly won't win the war against Rambus, according to Cahners In-Stat Group. The market research firm predicts Rambus will "capture the leading market share over the next several years". It forecasts 60 per cent market share, but then sits on a couple of fences with some …

    Business 29 Jul 1999, 09:48

  • Oracle plans $150 Intel-Linux machine

    Ellison loops back to the beginning of NC project, apparently....

    Our department of strange coincidences can't help noticing that on the day Liberate Technologies went public, Larry Ellison was telling analysts about another Oracle low-cost hardware project. This beast is Linux-based, but is clearly an attempt by Oracle to have another crack at Ellison's old network computer concept. Liberate …

    Business 29 Jul 1999, 10:14

  • Apple slips Samsung $100m in LCD priority bid

    'Investment' made to ensure iBook OEM doesn't run out of displays

    Apple is to pay Samsung $100 million to ensure it gets first pick of the Korean giant's LCD production run. The payment was described by Apple as an "investment" in Samsung, but what we're really talking here is a bung to make sure Samsung keeps Apple supplied with as many displays as it needs. For its part, Samsung said the …

    Business 29 Jul 1999, 10:27

  • Compaq axes 8000 jobs

    New CEO slashes costs as company announces $184m Q2 loss

    A decidedly bruised Compaq yesterday revealed it lost $184 million in its second quarter, and told everyone to expect further major losses. Driving those losses will be the cost of cutting 8000 staff -- 11 per cent of the workforce -- from the company payroll, part of a restructuring programme being put in place by newly-joined …

    Business 29 Jul 1999, 10:53

  • DRAM prices will rise further claims Micron exec

    Expect more talk of shortages too

    Micron Technology VP Kipp Bedard yesterday warned PC vendors to expect DRAM prices to rise as demand accelerates and inventory levels fall. Speaking at a BancBoston Robertson Stephens semiconductor conference, Bedard said 64Mb chips had risen in price through July from $4.50 to $4.75, and that they would increase to $5.25 …

    Business 29 Jul 1999, 11:28

  • Booze, birds and bandwidth

    FHM magazine launches its own free Internet service

    Lads' mag FHM -- which prints a never-ending diet of women in bikinis, often soaked to the skin, and photographed in ever-more provocative poses -- is to offer a subscription-free Net service by the end of the summer. Publisher EMAP Metro has teamed up with Internet Technology Group (ITG), the UK's largest independent ISP, to …

    Business 29 Jul 1999, 11:34

  • Kingston takes direct route to resellers

    Cuts out disties to flog memory to systems builders

    Kingston Technology has started selling memory direct to system builders over the Web. Through a three-month trial, Kingston is selling its own and other vendor memory under the name "ValueRAM" in the US, by-passing the distribution channel. Started in June, the scheme competes in the broker market selling to white-box builders …

    Business 29 Jul 1999, 11:35

  • US cable co. Charter charts IPO course

    Wants to raise $3.45 billion

    The US' number four cable TV operator, Charter, yesterday said it intends to launch an IPO. Details as yet remain scarce -- more will be revealed in an upcoming filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission -- but the company did say it intends to raise $3.45 billion through the stock issue. It also said the IPO would be …

    Business 29 Jul 1999, 11:52

  • Health warning placed on Olicom

    Selling some or all of the company?

    In May, we said Olicom was prey, waiting to be eaten by a larger company. Its dismemberment could come even sooner than we thought. The Danish networking equipment vendor says it is talking to various parties with a view to building "co-operative relationships". At the same time, it is negotiating to sell different technologies …

    Business 29 Jul 1999, 12:07

  • Taxman classifies computer installation as construction

    Special certificate required before invoices can be paid

    Computers and houses. Can you tell the difference? The Inland Revenue can't. Under the new "Construction Industry Scheme" (CIS), the installation of a computer is defined as a construction operation. Soon it will be illegal for any large organisation to pay an invoice from a computer supplier or manufacturer who installs a …

    Business 29 Jul 1999, 12:42

  • Totalise tantalises with share give-away offer

    Users get stake in free ISP company

    A copycat ISP launched on Ofex yesterday wants to lure new users to its subscription-free Net service with the promise of a (carpet) bagful of shares in return. Totalise said it will initially offer up to 250 free shares to users who sign up for the service although it anticipates that users could end up with an average of 3500 …

    Business 29 Jul 1999, 12:44

  • Telecomms deals spin up billions of dollars

    A 1000 per cent leap in average deal value in the US alone

    Merger mania hit the telecomms sector in the first half of 1999, according to Broadview's Technology M&A Report. Global acquisition and consolidation deals jumped 40 per cent from 295 in the first half of 1998 to 414 in 1999. North America saw 261 deals in this sector, up from 208 for the same period in 1998. Over a two-year …

    Business 29 Jul 1999, 12:45

  • Open source supremo backs MS as Apple sides with AOL

    "Microsoft deserves to win this battle," says Eric S Raymond

    Apple today poked a finger in Microsoft's eye by siding with AOL in the great Instant Messenger debate that has even had the great and the good of the open source community siding with the Beast of Redmond. Apple's deal with AOL, to support AOL's instant messaging (IM) service on the Mac, presumably by building it into the OS as …

    Business 29 Jul 1999, 14:10

  • Gameplay.com IPO nets £31m

    Not quite up to Freeserve standards, but maybe a better long-term bet

    UK online games company Gameplay.com yesterday became Britain's second big Internet IPO, selling 57.9 per cent of its stock to institutional investors and raising £31 million in the process. The company claimed the offer was ten times oversubscribed -- good, but nowhere near Freeserve's recent float, which was 30 times …

    Business 29 Jul 1999, 14:26

  • World trade body declares MS profits illegal

    Well, OK then, some of them, the ones from US gov't tax breaks, are

    Microsoft has benefited by what could be several billion dollars from export subsidies on profits that have now been declared illegal by the World Trade Organisation, at the request of the European Union. The US government has allowed Foreign Sales Corporations (FSCs) to benefit from what the EU says amounts to export subsidies …

    Business 29 Jul 1999, 15:13

  • Intel preps 27 Sept Coppermine debut

    In the meantime, we'll get mobile Celerons, eight-way Streaming SIMD Xeons

    Intel will follow up its 2 August 600MHz Pentium III and 500MHz Celeron launch with the announcement of its eight-way Xeon server chip on 23 August, mobile Celerons on 15 September and the 133MHz 820 chipset on 27 September. The Xeon announcement will see Chipzilla unveil the ship date and pricing for a 550MHz version of the CPU …

    Business 29 Jul 1999, 15:46

  • BBC buys bbc.com – but for how much?

    Should UK licence payers be told where their money is going

    News that the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has acquired the bbc.com domain should be heralded as a moment of breast-swelling pride for the TV licence fee payers of the UK. Unfortunately, concerned of Tunbridge Wells might choke on his Cornflakes if he finds out what some people are saying it cost. In its report on …

    Business 29 Jul 1999, 16:56

  • The English language according to Microsoft

    New Encarta dictionary snubs the Queen's English

    According to Microsoft, one is no longer amused by the Queen's English. Bill Gates has made it his quest to get us all saying fanny instead of bottom before the Millennium. British English is obviously outdated and needs a few Americanisms thrown in, so Microsoft has come up with a dictionary of world English. The Encarta World …

    Business 29 Jul 1999, 16:57

  • Nortel Q2 figures beat analysts' predictions

    Strong growth in Europe, North America and Asia Pacific

    Nortel Networks saw shares rise yesterday on the back of better than expected results for its second quarter. The Ontario-based networking vendor posted net profit of $368 million, and compared to $212 million for the same period last year. Sales grew 30 per cent to $5.41 billion, from $4.16 billion last year. Figures also …

    Business 29 Jul 1999, 17:01

  • Buddy lists to boom on mobile devices

    PDAs and cellphones to explode market for instant messaging

    While AOL and Microsoft slog it out in their instant messaging (IM) war, one research company is predicting that IM is set to become the killer app for wireless communications in the next five years. California-based Mobile Insights (MI) reckons the worldwide market for IM (aka buddy lists) will grow to 175 million users by 2002 …

    Business 29 Jul 1999, 17:03

  • Ingram profits slip in face of record sales

    Pretty damn good, though

    Ingram Micro saw profits fall eight per cent, against record sales for the second quarter. Net sales were at a record $6.8 billion, up 37 per cent. And net income was $51.7 million, or 35 cents per share, for the quarter ended 3 July. This compares to $55.6 million, or 37 cents per share, the previous year. Jerre Stead, Ingram …

    Business 29 Jul 1999, 17:04

  • Rival infests Sharkhunt waters

    It's turning into a Net ad feeding frenzy

    A week after Sharkhunt.com -- careful how you say it -- said it planned to pay Net users in the UK for receiving advertising while they go about their Web business, The Register has learnt that another British company is set to offer a similar service. Details are still sketchy but one source said that it will be launched in the …

    Business 29 Jul 1999, 17:05

  • DVD to dominate disk market

    But don't write off the floppy just yet

    Worldwide sales of removable and optical drives will top £10 billion this year, according to DISK/TREND’s latest research. The outlook for the different product groups is mixed, with DVD-ROM drives and writable DVD/CD-ROM formats becoming the major stars. Sales of DVD drives were slow at first because of format uncertainties and …

    Business 29 Jul 1999, 17:07

  • Themutual.net kicks off share giveaway

    First 10,000 to sign up get 10,000 shares - free

    The latest in the flock of free ISP's, Themutual.net, went live today. This company's gimmick is that it is actually a co-operative, and is giving free shares away to early sign-ups. The first 10,000 customers are in line to receive 10,000 shares each. The company says that these will be worth around £520 in total. The next 100, …

    Business 29 Jul 1999, 17:14