21st October 1999 Archive

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FSA warns of Net trading dangers

Only 30 per cent of day traders make money

The head of the Financial Services Authority (FSA) is warning investors about the hazards of day trading on the Internet. Howard Davies, chairman of the UK persoanl finance industry regulator, said investors needed to be made aware of the risks associated with using the Internet to buy and sell shares on the same day, in the …

Business 21 Oct 1999, 07:37
365 to IPO – but not exactly a pure Net company, is it?

Shoots up non-Net revenue streams

365 Corporation has confirmed its intention to IPO on the London Stock Exchange. Blue blood broker Cazenove is to be joint lead bookrunner alongside Durlacher, the niche investment bank which has re-invented itself as successful Internet upstart. No market cap figures have been mentioned yet, but we suspect 365 will be in the £ …

Business 21 Oct 1999, 07:52
Palm fuzzes on colour, hides behind IPO smoke screen

Analysis But underneath the pre-IPO silence, the cupboard looks bare

Coming less than a week after Palm commenced pre-nuptials with Symbian, and Nokia in particular, you'd have thought that Palm executives wouldn't arrive empty handed at their annual PalmSource conference. But instead they've come over all coy. Since we now know that 3Com and Symbian have been talking for the best part of a year …

Business 21 Oct 1999, 07:57
AOL-Gateway deal paves way for Linux Web appliance

AOL Anywhere gets hardware arm, Philips gets it in the last reel?

The appliance strategy AOL announced earlier this year when it bought Netscape has started to take on clearer form, with the announcement of an $800 million alliance between AOL and Gateway. This ties Gateway PC hardware and AOL online services closer together, but is also intended to take the pair way beyond the PC. You don't …

Business 21 Oct 1999, 09:07
French telco has designs on UK mobile licence

NTL to stage UMTS bid for French parent

France Telecom is to join the bidding for one of the UK's next-generation mobile phone licences. The telecomms giant will be gunning for the contract via its UK partner NTL, and believes the cable group is well placed to beat off the opposition due to its strong market position, according to today's Financial Times. Five UMTS …

Business 21 Oct 1999, 09:13
Yac debuts free unified messaging service

One number follows you everywhere -- you can run but you can't hide

An Irish company is set to offer a free unified messaging service (UMS) to Net users. Yac.com -- which stands for "You're Always Connected" -- has one million telephone numbers to give away so that anyone who wants to be contactable all the time can be literally just a phone call away. By simply using one yac.com number, users …

Business 21 Oct 1999, 09:34
Equiinet boss savages BT over ADSL fiasco

Jones rips into telco giant for continuing to drag its heels

Bob Jones, chairman of UK Internet company Equiinet, has condemned BT for announcing that its ADSL beta trial will feature slower access speeds at a higher price. The monster telco informed triallists last week that the move was part of BT's plans to introduce the service nationwide next year. In a prepared statement, Jones said …

Business 21 Oct 1999, 09:40
SGI loss deepens to $213 million

Ongoing restructure, failed sale of NT workstation line blamed

SGI blamed its Q1 2000 loss of $68 million, announced yesterday, on a "temporary loss of momentum", but it's hard not to see it as a sign the company is grinding to a halt. The loss was five times worse than Wall Street had been expecting, and to make matters worse, that's before anyone took into account SGI's restructuring …

Business 21 Oct 1999, 10:14
Be revenues rise – but profits don't much

We'd have gotten away with it if it wasn't for those pesky Linux kids

Alternative OS developer Be saw its revenue show its latest quarter-on-quarter rise, yesterday, when it reported its Q3 1999 figures. Alas, though, as revenues rise, Be continues to lose money overall. This time round, Be lost $4.5 million, compared to a slightly greater $4.7 million last quarter and $2.4 million for the same …

Business 21 Oct 1999, 10:49
Fujitsu Siemens takes on Sun in Europe

It's a better Sun than Sun, company claims

The new company formed from the union of Fujitsu and Siemens has revealed that it will use a Sparc clone running 100 per cent binary-compatible Solaris for a future range of servers which will displace the RM MIPs-based servers it currently sells. According to Dr Josef Reger, strategic VP at Fujitsu Siemens Germany, it already …

Business 21 Oct 1999, 11:12
Avnet pops out for a little Italian

Snaffles two Euro-disties as part of its Continental drift

Avnet is to buy two Italian distributors as part of its European expansion. The Arizona-based distributor will add PCD Italia and Matica, both based in Milan, to its growing stable of European companies. Earlier this year, Avnet landed itself an AMD franchise in the UK by acquiring UK distributor Flashpoint via its buyout of …

Business 21 Oct 1999, 11:20
IBM sees Y2K issue hurting sales

Customers bought early - possibly from somebody else, if you check sales levels for Big Blue's last quarter

IBM issued what amounts to a profits warning yesterday, with Lou Gerstner putting the blame on Y2K. He said that IBM would "continue to feel the effects of the Y2K slowdown in Q4 and early into next year". CFO Douglas Maine said "It is more than apparent that many customers had bought ahead to accommodate Y2K testing" and that …

Business 21 Oct 1999, 11:20
US advertisers question Web rules for kiddies

Forge a note from Mum and we'll do business...

The US Federal Trade Commission issued new rules governing the collection of children's personal information by Webmasters yesterday, as required by the Child Online Protection Act (COPA). Kids' Web sites will now be required to obtain parental consent before gathering demographic data on children below age 13. Numerous kids' …

Business 21 Oct 1999, 11:47
QXL auctions off Wembley Stadium

It's a fitting and fixture thing

QXL.com has won the contract to auction off Wembley Stadium, the British home of football, which gets demolished next year to make way for a new national stadium. Paul Fletcher, commercial director for Wembley national stadium, said the company would pump the auction profits back into the new arena. "Callers have expressed a …

Business 21 Oct 1999, 12:03
Real3D dead – Intel buys bones

Graphics company closed, extensive 3D patent portfolio sold to Chipzilla

Graphics specialist Real3D has collapsed, though since the dust has yet to settle, it's proving rather difficult to see the state of the body. Real3D's parent and 70 per cent shareholder Lockheed-Martin last week shut the company down, and sold the remains to Intel, which owned 20 per cent of the stock. SGI owns just under ten …

Business 21 Oct 1999, 12:15
Memcorp protects IP with acquisition of bust add-ons firm

Assets and goodwill

Memory Corp, the company that has taken to describing itself as a "digital data management company", has bought up bust add-ons company Modtech from the receivers for an undisclosed sum. Or rather it has bought up certain assets and goodwill associated with the business -- the debts are left behind with the creditors. There's a …

Business 21 Oct 1999, 12:23
High UK Net call costs are hurting Intel

Chipzilla insider keeps it under its hat

A senior executive at Intel has admitted privately that the high cost of dial-up access in Britain is "hurting" the chip company. He was speaking after a panel of Net industry professionals -- including execs from Intel -- were put on the spot about the cost of net access in Britain. Both John Woodget and Gordon Graylish of …

Business 21 Oct 1999, 13:21
Amiga users demand open source AmigaOS

Analysis It may not make much sense for Amiga, inc., but the plan has merit

Amiga users have begun a campaign to persuade Amiga, inc. president Thomas Schmidt that the success of both company and community depends on taking a leaf from Linux's book and releasing the AmigaOS under an open source licence. Initially, the plan is to focus on the open source release of the current, 'classic' AmigaOS, but …

Business 21 Oct 1999, 14:34
Robot cat barred from flight to Moscow

Some stories are too good to check...

A bizarre story in This is London tells of Reading University head of cybernetics Kevin Warwick's skirmish with British Airways. Warwick (is there a Kevin Reading at Warwick University?) allegedly tried to book his robotic cat a seat on a BA flight to Moscow. BA staff were adamant that the "cat" should go in the hold, as animals …

Business 21 Oct 1999, 15:09
CHS names the ditched divisions

Magnificent seven handed back - but some of the names are still under wraps

CHS Electronics has revealed the names of subsidiaries offloaded to improve its balance sheet. The US-based distributor told The Register it had handed back the following operations to their original owners: Memory Set and ARC Espana Cartera, both in Spain, and Arena Bilgisayar Sanayi ve Ticaret and Armada Bilgisayar in Turkey. …

Business 21 Oct 1999, 15:14
Big Blue and PSINet team up to offer RS/6000 e-services

You'd better get your wad out though

PSINet has jumped into bed with IBM to become the first ISP in Europe to offer hosted e-business solutions using its RS/6000 SP server. This marriage of convenience is designed to let companies gain a scaleable and powerful presence on the Web using Big Blur's supercomputer and its associated technology. Even the base line …

Business 21 Oct 1999, 15:35
Intel porn squatters stick up for AMD

Chipzilla and Chimpzilla meet their match in Gimpzilla

Intel today found itself pushing AMD products over the Internet. This was via the Web site intel-inside.com –- originally a hardcore porn site hiding behind the Intel name. Earlier this month Intel got the lawyers in to sort out the cyber-porn masquerading under its squeaky clean trade mark. The owners of the site then in turn …

Business 21 Oct 1999, 15:35
Canadian pedo vindicated by appellate court

Judge finds simple possession no boost to child exploitation -- yeah, right...

The British Columbia Court of Appeal yesterday upheld the acquittal of retired civil servant John Sharpe for possession of child pornography on grounds that banning possession violates citizens' rights to privacy and freedom of expression. Judge Mary Southin, the ruling's author, also found that banning simple possession would …

Business 21 Oct 1999, 20:41