The federal judge now assigned the job of reviewing Microsoft Corp’s long-delayed anti-trust settlement with the US Justice Department has asked parties in the case to meet next Monday: Judge Thomas Jackson received the case after the US Court of Appeals’ June 16 order, which overturned the earlier ruling by Judge Stanley Sporkin that rejected the Microsoft consent decree, and some observers see the call for a review meeting as a little ominous for Microsoft as Judge Jackson had been expected simply to rubber-stamp the settlement terms.
Sounds anti-competitive to us – One large Intel Corp customer last week hissed about P6 pre-release allocations, writes the US PC Week gossip column, saying that unless manufacturers are buying Intel motherboards, they will always be one stepping behind on P6s – board customers get the more mature B2 stepping while customers buying just CPUs get the B1 stepping and this will probably repeat itself when Intel goes into the officially shipping B3 version of P6. Board customers will start getting B3s when CPU-only customers get B2s.
The gentle slide in the Netscape Communications Corp’s share price down to its flotation price and quite likely below, may be arrested for a day or two by the news that it has a deal with AT&T Corp’s WorldNet Services division, which will distribute a co-branded version of Netscape’s Netscape Navigator software to its personal computer customers, and has also signed a company-wide license to use Netscape products internally; at midday yesterday, Netscape was up $3 at $54.25 on the Nasdaq system.
And AT&T Corp, as suggested (CI No 2,728) will offer low-cost personal computers as part of its deal with Netscape Communications Corp to provide Internet access, a source close to the long distance company said: we’ve been wondering whether it would be worthwhile to create a low-cost Internet access terminal, and AT&T seems to have decided that there is some mileage in the idea.
Philips Electronics NV is expanding its cable television operations by buying the Kabeltelevisie Eindhoven NV cable operator for some $72m: the deal will bring Philips a further 85,500 cable television subscribers and is subject to approval from authorities in Eindhoven – the city council has sold 48% of the firm on its own behalf, 48% on behalf of local housing associations.
The British Broadcasting Corp, the UK independent television companies, British Telecommunications Plc and Sony Corp will form a working group to establish technical standards for digital television: the first meeting will not be convened until the release of the UK’s goverment White Paper on the subject, the BBC said; membership is open to any broadcasting or technical body; the UK’s Channel 4 television, Motorola Inc and National Transcommunications Ltd, privatised transmission network arm of the former UK Independent Broadcasting Authority, will likely join the grouping.
Now that the Indian government allows 100% ownership of the subsidiaries of foreign companies, Hewlett-Packard Co wants to take full control of its destiny, and is to pay its distributor Blue Star Pvt Ltd $38m for its 20% shareholding in Hewlett-Packard India Pvt Ltd.
Around 53% of German personal computer users plan to subscribe to at least one on-line service next year, PC Welt magazine said after surveying more than 800 users: it found that more than 25% of users now subscribe to either Deutsche Telekom AG’s on-line service or to CompuServe while 27% plan to subscribe to an service within the next next 12 months; some 47% saw no reason to subscribe to a service.
UK cable communications firm TeleWest Communications Plc is planning to raise ú500m on the US bond market, the Financial Times reported, saying the money would go towards paying off debt and also fund the next stage of development of the biggest cable operator in the UK.
IBM Corp has started testing its OS/2 Warp Server, which will be distributed to beta testers at the end of August and should be general
ly available in the first quarter of 1996: following on from OS/2 Warp Connect, IBM claims that the Warp Server contains functional enhancements in system management, back-up, remote access and advanced print function, and that it can be customised to meet users’ needs.
The Czech Economics Ministry plans to launch a tender by November to select a company for a joint venture to operate one of two digital cellular telephone networks, a ministry official advised Reuters: the tender will be for a partner to join the Czech radio transmission company Ceska Radiokomunikace as.
The US Federal Communications Commission has approved a request by MCI Communications Corp to allow foreign ownership of the company to rise to 35%, from its current limit of 28%, with MCI stating that no single new foreign investor would own more than 1% of the company – it wants to be free to bring in strategic partners as shareholders: the agency approved acquisition of 20% of MCI by British Telecommunications Plc last year, raising foreign investment in the long-distance carrier to 28%; AT&T Corp and Sprint Corp supported the request.
Ameritech Corp, in its first venture with a Chinese company, has formed a joint venture in Peking with China Communications System Co Ltd to assist China in the development of its telecommunications sector under a 25-year pact: Ameritech will provide funding, advanced communications technology and management consulting, and the first joint venture project will build a cellular telephone and wireline switched telephone network for Taiyuan, capital of Shanxi Province; in the first phase, 10,000 cellular lines are scheduled for completion in mid-1996, with the joint venture, 80% owned by Ameritech and 20% China Communications, to build up to 30,000 lines eventually, and offer some standard telephone lines.
Dell Computer Corp opened a $10m personal computer plant in Malaysia earlier this year, but says it will invest $100m in the Asia Pacific region over the next two to three years to establish its manufacturing and sales operations there.
PC Quote Inc, supplier of investorVision information system for securities quotations, advertising, news and information for personal computers, has done a deal with Microsoft Corp to provide market data, including delayed market quotations currently available through its World Wide Web home page, for redistribution through the Microsoft Network from its launch on August 24: presumably hoping the Microsoft summer madness will rub off on him (CI No 2,726), PC Quote chairman Louis Morgan says the pact would certainly boost earnings, but he could not project by how much.
MicroFrame Inc has made a cash offer to purchase some assets of Teltronics Inc’s remote maintenance business, including its customer base and Dispatcher, ComDev, SEB-I and SEB-II and Iris product lines, and to take on the staff and other associated assets managing the products: it hopes for a prompt res
In that case, what need for a book? Headline from the Dow Jones & Co seems to sum it up nicely: Windows 95 Is Easy To Use, 450 Books Say.
