Tele Danmark A/S is to bid for a licence to operate a quarter of the market for Groupe Speciale Mobile telephone calls in Poland, which is expected to invite foreign bids for its cellular market either before or after the presidential elections this autumn: the company said it was prepared to invest $175m in Poland, and will also bid for a digital cellular licence in the Czech Republic this autumn; Tele Danmark, looking to expand after it was part privatised last year in a $3,424m share issue, said it has also bid for a Hong Kong cellular licence.
Netherlands-based pay-television group Nethold, jointly owned by the Richemont Group and MultiChoice Ltd has finalised agreements with three manufacturers for a total of 1.1m digital integrated receiver decoders, the largest ever such order: the three manufacturers are Philips Electronics NV, National Panasonic unit of Matsushita Electrical Industrial Co and Pace Microtech Ltd; Nethold says the set-top decoders work with both satellite and cable.
Northern Telecom Ltd has signed contracts with Brazil’s Empresa Brasileira de Telecomunicacoes and Telecomunicacoes do Ceara to supply systems for data packet networks: no financial details were given, but the company said the deals involved supplying its DPN 100 and Magellan Passport systems; the contract with Empresa Brasileira entails expanding its data packet network to 33,800 from 23,800 ports and the construction of a high-speed backbone to support the network; Teleceara, a government-owned company, will set up its own packet data network to serve government and link with Empresa’s network.
Electronic Data Systems Corp has now completed the acquisition of the A T Kearney global consulting and executive search firm, for $300m in cash, notes and contigency payments: the General Motors Corp subsidiary said it also has a stock incentive provision of the deal for 6.6m shares of General Motors class E stock to be vested over a long-term period for some A T Kearney staff joining the company; Electronic Data’s consulting unit will be merged with Kearney’s operations, forming a business with 3,600 employees, $500m annual turnover.
Minneapolis, Minnesota-based Ceridian Corp has now completed the purchase of Resumix Inc, a company that provides human skills management software and services enabling customers to scan resumes, or curriculum vitae electronically, and identify qualified candidates for hire, promotion and reassignment: Resumix expected turnover for 1995 is $25m; terms were not disclosed.
You make a grown man cry: apropos the problem that if you once try the Internet access software within Windows95, you pre-existing Internet access software will be disabled, US PC Week reports that NetCom On-Line Communication Services Inc and other Internet service and software providers such as UUnet Technologies Inc, Netscape Communications Corp, and Compuserve Inc’s Internet Division, say that the number of technical-support calls has skyrocketed since the rollout of Windows95 on August 24 – We are averaging around 20 minutes per call to get this issue resolved, Rich Young, vice-president of sales and service at NorthwestNet told the paper – still, Ma Bell and rivals must be thrilled with all the additional telephone traffic the thing is generating as the world goes on hold for a help-line.
According to the London-based UK Cable Communications Association, telecommunications revenue in the UK this year will contribute ECU 431m to cable operators’ coffers – which is not much help to anybody, because although European Currency Units may be politically correct, only two people know what they’re worth, both are bankers, and one of them’s forgotten, but in a currency everyone understands, the number works out at about $555; the report adds that potential revenue in Europe by 2005, based on 25m lines installed by cable companies, would yield an estimated revenue of at least $9,650m if the right regulatory regime is put in place.
Microsoft Corp has done a deal with Banca di R
oma to provide software and consulting to modernise the Italian bank’s information network, encouraging Banca di Roma Director General Cesare Geronzi to quip This is no simple engagement, my dear Bill, for we are now married, after signing the agreement in Rome with Bill Gates: terms were not disclosed, but Microsoft will outfit the bank’s 12,000 personal computers with its software, in particular Windows NT; Gates, in Italy for the launch of Windows95, said that the deal involved a long-term partnership that would result in major restructuring of the Banca di Roma’s entire computer network.
AirTouch Communications Inc, the cellular services operator spun off by Pacific Telesys Group Inc has acquired a 4.5% interest in Digital Tu-Ka Hokuriku Co Ltd, a new company established to build a cellular network in the Hokuriku section in Japan which has a population of about 3m: Airtouch unit AirTouch International will own the interest in Digital Tu-Ka, which is based in Kanazawa City; the network is expected to start service in 1997, and it is intended to use the Japanese Digital Cellular technical standard; this new company is AirTouch’s eighth venture in Japan.
