Deutsche Telekom AG declined comment on a report in the Wall Street Journal that it and France Telecom were bringing pressure on Sprint Corp to cut the $4,200m asking price for their combined 20% stake by as much as $800m to reflect the fall of more than 25% in the Sprint share price since the deal was agreed, and the fact that two state monopolies rather than one are jointly negotiating makes the deal more difficult to conclude – all of which is likely to be academic unless and until France and Germany open up their own phone markets.
In its review of Microsoft Corp’s proposed acquisition of Intuit Inc, the US Justice Department plans to interview the Big Three on-line services for their views on the potential anti-competitive effects of the takeover, according to Newsday.
And Fortune magazine reported that it was Apple Computer Inc, Sun Microsystems Inc, Sybase Inc and Borland International Inc paid for that Silicon Valley law firm, Wilson, Sonsini, Goodrich & Rosati to object to the Microsoft Corp-Intuit Inc deal and the company’s antitrust settlement with the Justice Department; representatives of all four companies declined to comment.
Parsippany, New Jersey-based Dialogic Corp has completed its acquisition of Spectron Microsystems Inc.
A jury trial of the patent infringement suit brought by Interdigital Communications Corp against Motorola Inc was due to begin yesterday: Interdigital says it is entitled to royalty payments from manufacturers who include any part of its Time Division Multiple Access technology in their equipment and has already signed licensing agreements with AT&T Corp, OKI Electric Industry Co Ltd, Sanyo Electric Co Ltd, Siemens AG and Matsushita Electrical Industrial Co Ltd; a lawsuit with Qualcomm Inc was settled recently and one with L M Ericsson Telefon AB is awaiting trial in Texas; Motorola claims the patents are invalid, and has failed to reach a settlement; a Motorola expert testified in a pre-trial deposition that if damages were awarded, they should not exceed $12 per phone – capped at 3.5% of sales; the royalty for related equipment should be capped at 2%.
Siemens Nixdorf Information Systems AG completed its tender offer for Pyramid Technology Corp, winning 79.6% of the equity, which with the shares it already holds takes it to 96.3%: it is ready for completion.
US West Inc says it is considering options to get its share price up, including offers to buy in existing stock or spinning off an entity, chief executive Dick McCormick told Inside Media: The fact we’re selling for $38 or $39 and we think we’re worth $60 or $70 does put heat on us to look at this thing and to say ‘is this a transitory thing or is it something that we think is more of a permanent thing that we need to deal with?’, McCormick told the magazine; any decision to spin something off would likely be taken before mid-year.
America Online Inc chief executive Steve Case said in New York that while the company has no immediate plans for the $50m investment it is getting from Bertelsmann AG, it could be used for acquisitions or investments in related companies.
The Lexington, Massachusetts-based Logica Inc arm of Logica Plc has signed a deal with Bankers Trust New York Corp’s BT Financial Services Information Systems unit to market, integrate and implement the latter’s Core Portfolio Management System, marking the first strategic partnership Logica has reached with a major bank: under the deal, Logica will market the Windows-based relational database portfolio management system to banks throughout North America, Europe and Asia via its worldwide network of offices.
Minneapolis-based Network Systems Corp seems to have seen off those dissident shareholders suing over its agreement to be acquired by Storage Technology Copr: it says the plaintiffs agreed that they will withdraw their action to enjoin the merger and that their complaints, including the claims made for damages, will be dismissed.
Microsoft Corp says it will depar
t from current practice by making a low monthly charge for the Microsoft Network, and then offer a menu of separate charges for all but the basic service of electronic mail, chat, file uploading and downloading, news, weather and sports news.
Hewlett-Packard Co has cut prices on its family of DesignJet plotters and printers by as much as 20%.
Siemens Nixdorf Informationssysteme AG, Paderborn and Munich, says that it has won Unix branding from X/Open Co Ltd for its Sinix Unix, in the first such announcement to reach us since the gun was fired.
No more I have to go now – I’m about to enter the tunnel on your cellular car-phone – at least not if it is the Lincoln Tunnel between Manhattan and New Jersey: Nynex Mobile Communications Inc and Bell Atlantic Mobile Inc have installed specially-designed mile-long antennae to receive and transmit cellular calls so that callers on the combine network will be certain of maintaining, receiving and making calls for the length of the tunnel.
Microsoft Corp says it will have a new Video for Windows version 1.1e in two weeks that eliminates the code that Microsoft licensed from Intel Corp and that Apple Computer Inc alleges infringes its rights; Judge Robert Aguilar issued a temporary restraining order against Microsoft’s electronic and other distribution of files included in Video for Windows 1.1d developer kits until a hearing on March 10.
Troy, Michigan-based flat-panel display company OIS Optical Imaging Systems Inc reports that a fire broke out at its new manufacturing facility, adding that it was extinguished quickly and there was no release of hazardous materials nor any injuries: safety precautions were still being taken, and OIS said it has not yet assessed the extent of the damage or the cause.
US Justice Department’s anti-trust chief Anne Bingaman is involved with more than Microsoft Corp, and she says the department would support individual Baby Bell phone companies wanting to enter the long distance business in hearings before Judge Harold Greene under three conditions – that states open local telephone markets to competition; the Justice Department decides there is actual competition in a local market; and phone companies are subject to competitive safeguards; she added that no-one has yet satisfied those conditions.
Correction: on the item in CI No 2,608 about the London Underground contract, ICL Plc points out that its CFM subsidiary has no connection with the former Computer Field Maintenance, which was sold by ICL’s then parent STC Plc to Granada Group Plc in 1986 (CI No 404).
While we’re all for enterprise and imagination in finding new ways of raising much-needed cash for public works investment, we are surely not alone in feeling that London Underground’s idea of getting tube stations – or even whole lines – sponsored, so that Ladbroke Grove might become Ladbrokes Grove, and the Circle Line, yellow on the map, the Yellow Pages line, and fortunately, IBM UK Ltd’s London base is on the other bank of the river, otherwise we might have had to get used to the idea of IBMbankment station…
