At least one source within IBM Corp is saying quite openly what we surmised – that Phil Hester’s harmonisation unit, which was to have ensured that wherever possible, all product lines use common components, has been disbanded not because its work was complete, but because it failed in its mission – our assumption that without a dictator, the various divisions would soon slip back into their old not-invented-here attitude to anything from any other part of the company was however wrong – the divisions have gone native again already…
Motorola Inc said yesterday that 550 people making cellular telephones at its plant in Bathgate, Scotland will be released from temporary contracts after meeting seasonal demand for the products: it says the temps were brought in to boost capacity in the run-up to the peak Christmas selling season for phones, and when they go, it will still employ around 2,500 people at the manufacturing plant.
The UK Office of Telecommunications has an unhappy Christmas in store for British Telecommunications Plc, Reuter reports: five statements are due between now and the end of next week, starting with today’s announcement on who should bear the cost of number portability; in the middle of next week will come a draft of the new measures to clamp down on anti-competitive behaviour in the sector; the other announcements include a consultative document on interconnection charges for international direct dial calls tomorrow and a paper setting out Oftel’s views on how to fund access to the so-called information superhighway for schools is expected on Monday.
QVC Inc, one of the largest home shopping companies in the US, is to create 1,100 jobs at a รบ14m call centre it plans to set up in Liverpool to handle its European television sales clients, the UK government announced: the plan, which followed heavy lobbying by investment agencies, was welcomed by the UK Department of Trade & Industry; it represents an important win for the industrially ravaged city of Liverpool and the Merseyside area.
Ziff-Davis Publishing Co and Yahoo! Corp joined forces to publish an interactive magazine called Yahoo Internet Life on the Internet: it will combine a Web site, a print publication and a CD-ROM: the two will also together develop a comprehensive directory of computing resources over the World Wide Web.
Apple Computer Inc says it will begin assembling Macintosh computers in Brazil next year: it is considering contracting a Brazilian company to assemble the computers.
It will only be closed circuit, but NEC Corp is taking the Personal Handy Phone enhanced Telepoint system to Singapore and has teamed with Hutchison Whampoa Ltd’s Pacific Century Corporate Access Ltd for the purpose: the system will be installed at an international convention centre in Singapore where it will be used as an internal cordless phone system, but will not be connected to the public network.
The Northern California coast and the Pacific North West suffered the kind of rushing mighty wind (but accompanied by torrential rain) that laid waste many a forest in the south of England in October 1987, and Sunnyvale-based Avant! Corp had to issue a denial of talk that it had closed – although the storm knocked out computers and phones at its corporate headquarters; it is also filing a countersuit against Cadence Design Systems Inc for alleged misappropriation of trade secrets, conspiracy, unfair competition and intentional interference with customer relations.
The semiconductor industry’s preliminary European book-to-bill ratio for November is 1.08, but as the October ratio was revised to 1.09 from 1.05, the figure, issued by the US Semiconductor Industry Association, is not very reliable.
Yes but who on earth would want to buy it? Ing C Olivetti & Co SpA chairman Carlo De Benedetti said petulantly that the company was more vulnerable to hostile takeover after banks forced him to dilute the stake his finance company CIR holds in Olivetti: CIR’s shareholding in Oliv
etti will amount to 15% after the rights issue, and De Benedetti said he had responded by broadening the base of international shareholders in Olivetti; he declined to identify new holders but said you will notice when we publish the list of shareholders.
Time Warner Inc declined comment on a report that its Time Warner Interactive games arm is up for sale.
Swedish cellular telephony operator Telia Mobitel SA has signed a two-year framework agreement worth $30.8m with Nokia Oy, Helsinki for supply of GSM and DCS basestations.
Musical palate jaded? Bjored with Bjork? Wish Hootie would just blow and take his Blowfish with him? Britpop sound like you heard it all before 30 years ago? Think perhaps that Tibetan monks chanting Buddhist scriptures sound more appealing than any of the above? Chinese composer He Xuntian has just the thing for you, and according to Reuter Sister Drum from the People’s Republic could just turn out to be the biggest thing in World Music since those Bulgarians: the album is called Sister Drum, the songs were constructed on a computer music sequencer using many Tibetan sounds, including Buddhist monks chanting the scriptures, but dominating the album are the strong, high vocals of Zhu Zheqin, a female singer from southern China who is being compared to British-based Icelandic pop star Bjork; the tunes are said to have a dream-like quality about them and the singing, while in Chinese, is more akin to chanting and the whole effect has been likened to Irish singer and multi-instrumentalist Enya (everything you hear on Enya’s albums is sung or played by Enya herself); the album doesn’t hit the US market until next month, but if you can’t wait, it’s out in France now.
Vodafone Group Plc says that after discussions with its service providers, it plans to introduce four additional tariffs to its digital network with effect from April 1.
In face of tight supply conditions and strong customer demand, Milpitas, California-based Quantum Corp will hold rather than cut prices on its desktop drives between now and the end of the first quarter 1996.
Gandalf Technologies Inc, Nepean, Ontario retained IBM Corp to be its on-site service provider in the US.
Plano, Texas-based Electronic Data Systems Corp has agreed to acquire 80% of Technocaixa, the facilities management subsidiary of Spain’s La Caixa savings bank, for $33m, the bank said: Electronic Data will also get La Caixa’s 25.5% stake in IGR, which manages the telecoms networks for the banking group; Technocaixa is expected to bill out $174m over the next four years in services to La Caixa; Electronic Data expects to have turnover of $99m in Spain by the end of 1995.
The commercial – as opposed to academic and recreational – world of the Internet is so new and is evolving at such a phenomenal pace that the only sensible stance is to keep an open mind and avoid adopting entrenched positions, but there is a growing body of opinion that the Netscape Communications Corp Navigator and Sun Microsystems Inc Java pose a mortal threat to Microsoft Corp debating gambit was never much more than wishful thinking, and that Microsoft’s announcements on Thursday, which are designed to position the Windows personal computer as the ideal Internet access terminal, mean that when it comes to the Internet, its Game Over and Microsoft has won; the only question mark over that contention is whether Microsoft can keep to its timetable – the company is notoriously tardy in bringing crucial new products to market, the first version often fails to work properly, and in the past, users were sufficiently locked in that they had no alternative but to wait; the Internet world is developing so fast that as a latecomer, Microsoft really has no time at all to spare.
Bit disconcerting to read the Exponential Technology Inc presentation and exposition of its BiCMOS technology for its proposed PowerPC (CI No 2,810) because it does not venture beyond the received wisdom of the past five years, and is written as if microprocessors like Advanced Micro Devices Inc’s Am2900 (TTL if memory serves) and the Motorola Inc 10800 (definitely ECL) never existed: rather than come up with an ingenious form of BiCMOS, what Exponential has done is to apply the advances of the last decade in fundamental process technology and circuit design to ECL, and found a means of fabricating a large CMOS cache on an ECL chip.
Modem maker Boca Research Inc, Boca Raton, Florida, has formed a joint venture company with several outside investors and Dinesh Puri, an entrepreneur with over 18 years experience in the information technology and communications industry in India: Boca Research will have an equity position in the resulting company, Powertel Boca Pvt Ltd; Puri will be managing director of Powertel Boca, which will distribute Boca Research products and complementary products and services in India, South Asia, and some markets in Africa; headquartered in Bangalore, Powertel Boca will also have offices in Bombay and Delhi.
Columbia, South Carolina-based Policy Management Systems Corp, where IBM Corp had a stake for a spell, decided not to acquire SOCS Groupe SA because in extensive due diligence and contract negotiations, it found SOCS is committed to proprietary object-oriented technology where Policy intends to use industry-standard object technologies.
