21st February 2000 Archive

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IF a picture paints a thousand words, a sketch would do for you

Halifax pays $1m for IF.com address

Halifax, the UK's biggest mortgage bank, has splashed out $1 million for the domain name address IF.Com. This will stand for Intelligent Finance, the name for its new standalone Internet and telephone banking operation, announced on Friday (Feb 18). IF also comprises two middle letters of Halifax, the bank helpfully points out …

Business 21 Feb 2000, 00:01
Intel now at inflection point – Grove

Microprocessors just a part of its business

Most observers thought that Andy Grove, Intel's chairman, gave a lacklustre performance for his keynote speech at last Tuesday's Developer Forum. But in contrast to that, when he spoke to European journalists the day before, Grove positively sparkled. Taking questions on a wide range of topics, Grove was particularly lucid about …

Business 21 Feb 2000, 08:54
Intel's Y2K desktop, server, mobile roadmap

Writing is on all sorts of walls

Towards the end of January, Intel presented its 2000 roadmap for the Asia Pacific region. While much of this information is by now already known, there are some striking features about the roadmap which are well worth stressing. Desktop/Celeron As we reported yesterday, 866MHz and 850MHz Coppermines will now be introduced at the …

Business 21 Feb 2000, 09:36
Intel's Celeron pricing to June

Prices to tumble over next three months

The following shows the pricing of Intel's Celeron family from the next drop, on the 27th Feb, to the launch of its 700MHz Celeron in June. All prices are for units of 1,000 while the 66 designation is the speed of the system, or front side bus. On the 27th of February next, the biggest price cuts on Celerons will be for the 533 …

Business 21 Feb 2000, 10:03
Intel's Pentium III pricing to June

Prices to tumble over next three months

As with the Celeron prices published earlier today, quantities are for 1,000s in trays. The boxed pricing for the channel (provided they are available), will differ. Here, below, the 100/133 designations after the processor speeds refer to the speed of the system or front side bus, while 256 or 512 refers to the amount of cache …

Business 21 Feb 2000, 10:25
Infineon IPO to raise $5.9bn

Biggest German float since Deutsche Telekom in 1996, apparently

Infineon, Siemens' spun-off semiconductor operation, will IPO on 13 March -- a share issue the company believes will raise between five and six billion euros ($4.94-5.93 billion) -- the company said today. The IPO will take place on both the Frankfurt and Nasdaq stock exchanges, with shares hitting the market between 29 and 35 …

Business 21 Feb 2000, 10:56
Transmeta launches in London

But PR company decides not to tell us

Transmeta CEO Dave Ditzel breezed into London today to launch its SuperHype Crusoe CPUs to an indifferent British public. The fabless -- and chipless -- and productless -- company did not extend an invitation to The Register, Europe's biggest IT news site, which is based in London. PR dummies of the Week are US company Ketchum …

Business 21 Feb 2000, 11:34
Intel's manufacturing and packaging crunch

Twelve inchers, .13 micron et al

While we were at the Intel Developer Forum last week, news broke that Kyocera, one of the world's major producers of ceramic substrates, had said it wanted more money from the chip giant for the parts it made for its microprocessors. Just another supply nightmare for Chipzilla. But Intel faces more challenges than that, as …

Business 21 Feb 2000, 11:38
Alcatel snaps up Newbridge

Deal announced tomorrow, FT says

Newbridge, the troubled networking infrastructure firm that has not been for sale for as long as we can remember, is to succumb to the advances of Alcatel. According to FT.com, the $6.5 billion deal could be announced as soon as late Tuesday. It looks like a good home: Alcatel, the huge French telecoms equipment manufacturer, is …

Business 21 Feb 2000, 12:18
EMI to launch digital music service via Supertracks

Deal comes alongside similar partnership with Liquid Audio

UK music giant EMI will today announce a major push into the digital music market in partnership with online music specialist Supertracks. The deal will provide EMI with a fourth format -- digital download -- to offer alongside CDs, MiniDiscs and tapes. Music provided in the new format will, at least initially, be sold through …

Business 21 Feb 2000, 12:50
CallNet 0800 plugs ISDN loophole

Business users not wanted

CallNet 0800 has closed a loophole that allowed its users to access the 24/7 toll-free service using ISDN. Until recently, some Net users were able to take advantage of ISDN connections with no dial-up costs. When this facility was pulled, ISDN users accused the ISP of foul play. But a spokesman for CallNet 0800 said: "It is …

Business 21 Feb 2000, 13:03
WebTV propels e-district to financial stratosphere

An interactive TV success story. At last

A London-based 12-man outfit plans to become the latest to profit from the cyber-boom with a £100 million float next month. Three-year-old e-district.net will use the £15-20 million expected to be raised from the listing to expand into the US. According to e-district's founder and CEO, Steve Laitman, the company is looking to …

Business 21 Feb 2000, 13:25
UK Chancellor gives BT another good kicking

But share price rallies

Chancellor Gordon Brown is to take another swipe at BT amid criticism over the continued high cost of Net access in Britain. Brown's aides reportedly briefed journalists over the weekend and it seems he'll tell the British and American Chambers of Commerce tomorrow about his desire to see the cost of Net access fall -- and …

Business 21 Feb 2000, 13:42
BSA declares UK piracy truce

Hurry up, you've only 30 days left...

The Business Software Alliance (BSA) is offering the pipe of peace to British businesses which may be using illegally installed software. The industry lobby group is offering a 30-day truce, kicking off on 6 March. At the same time it is offering a the BSA GASP auditing tool at bsatruce.com, as well as free Web-based advice. ( …

Business 21 Feb 2000, 14:49
Micro$oft to sack temp workers after one year

Letting them hang around and sue you is just too expensive, apparently

Microsoft has replied to criticism that it exploits temporary workers by employing them for years -- making them virtual permanent workers -- while denying them the benefits associated with a permanent position. This so-called 'permatemp' status saves the obscenely wealthy software giant millions in fringe-benefit costs each …

Business 21 Feb 2000, 15:48
AMD to slaughter Intel on Athlon pricing

700MHz Athlon reduced by around 60 per cent

As we revealed earlier on today, AMD has decided to take its price war right to the gates of Chipzilla central and has further revised its pricing on the Athlon in a bid to make Intel hurt. Our information is that AMD has decided to make the Athlon 700 its sweet spot -- cutting the price by a staggering 60 per cent next week. …

Business 21 Feb 2000, 15:55
Tesco slams ‘unnecessary’ DVD zoning

Offers 'easily hackable' multi-region player

UK grocer Tesco has launched a one-company war against DVD 'zoning' -- the fixing of DVD players and discs to operate only within specific world markets. In a letter to the president of Warner Home Video, Warren Liebefarb, Tesco world sourcing director Christine Cross dismissed zoning as an "unnecessary practice". She described …

Business 21 Feb 2000, 16:37
E-retailing kills children – yeah, right

Net scare story No.94

The Internet was last week accused of taking children's lives. Those reading an article in Thursday's Express newspaper could have been forgiven for believing that the Web was about to kill off most of the nation's nippers while they were playing outside their homes. "The Internet revolution's promise of car-free shopping could …

Business 21 Feb 2000, 17:01