Commenting on its fabulous fiscal first quarter figures (page seven), Hewlett-Packard Co, which is now on target for annual sales approaching $30,000m, said orders in the first quarter were up 25% at $7,700m, but warned that higher interest rates in the US could affect demand going forward; US orders were up 22% at $3,100m and orders from outside the US were up 28% at $4,600m – order growth was broad-based but especially strong in desktop and server personal computers, order growth for its HP-UX multi-user systems were outstanding and its HP 9000 Series 700 workstations had very good order growth; the company also announced a two-for-one split and a 33.3% hike in the dividend and the shares jumped for joy, adding $9 at $114.375 on the news.
British Telcommunications Plc has formed a consortium with automobile firm Mahindra & Mahindra, Goldman Sachs & Co and the State Investment Corp of Maharashtra to bid for telecommunications projects in India, and says it may bring in one or two more partners; it has also formed Wipro Communications Ltd with Wipro Pte Ltd to offer electronic mail, voicemail very small aperture terminal satellite and other services from April, and has launched its integrated trading system for treasury operations in India; India has created 18 telephone districts and will set up a new licensing unit to evaluate bids from private firms to run both basic and cellular phone services; and tyre and cement-maker JK Corp has teamed with Mitel Ltd to bid for basic and cel lular services.
Bell Atlantic Corp has terminated its agreement for AT&T Corp to do systems integration for its full service network and ended negotiations on AT&T Network Systems’ role as prime contractor and systems integrator for construction of the network, saying it will now do the work itself; AT&T’s equipment orders are likely to be curtailed too, because Alcatel NV’s Alcatel Network Systems Inc says Bell Atlantic will test its Alcatel 1000 AX Asynchronous Transfer Mode switching system in a field trial of speech, data and video residential and business services; Bell Atlantic plans to invest $5,000m in the new network over the next five years.
Vertically integrating, Methuen, Massachusetts-based touch screen specialist MicroTouch Systems Inc has acquired information kiosk housings maker Factura Composites Inc of Rochester, New York; no terms.
Shares in Gandalf Technologies Inc eased after the company said it was unaware of any corporate or market developments that would account for the recent increased activity in its stock; one analyst, who asked not to be identified, said there has been persistent gossip over the past year that Newbridge Networks Corp was interested in buying it – Gandalf has been looking for an investor or a potential sale for over a year, declared the analyst.
Tadpole Technology Plc, Cambridge says it has started production deliveries of the Tadpole P1000 notebook computer in the US and Europe, and shipments to Japan are expected to start in March: the shares added 12 pence at 254 pence on the news.
Personal computers were a winner last quarter, and Hewlett-Packard Co’s personal computer business is now a $2,500m company, International Data Corp reckons, up from $1,400m in 1993 and $670m in 1992: the research house reckons it is already number three in the personal computer-based server market.
European Community Competition Commissioner Karel Van Miert has written to the Spanish government querying the fairness of the liberalisation of its cellular telephone market, on grounds that Airtel paid $650m for its licence, while Telefonica de Espana SA paid nothing.
Commenting on its first half figures (page seven), AmeriQuest Technologies Inc – the former CMS Enhancements, which has transformed itself into a distributor, says its aggregate number of employees has been reduced by 27% from a 1994 pre-consolidation high of 666 to about 486 on February 1, with staff reductions made in accounting, administration, warehousing and other now-r
edundant operations; additional savings are expected once all operations and information systems are fully integrated by the quarter’s end, after which it will concentrate on improving the bottom line; it says it expects to become profitable in the months ahead.
AT&T Corp says a new valuation of Lin Broadcasting Corp will be required before it can buy the outstanding shares not already held by its McCaw Cellular Communications unit after Morgan Stanley & Co set the private market value of Lin at $105 a share, a full $50 a share below the value set by an advisor hired by Lin’s outside directors.
It is important to industry that the French and German governments are confronted with the experiences of Canada, Japan, America and Great Britain, former IBM Deutschland chief Olaf Henkel, now head of the BDI Federation of German Industry told Reuters ahead of the Group of Seven meeting in Brussels next week, where the building of global information networks is to be discussed: Almost everything that the Europeans are calling for has already been implemented in other countries, and the 1998 deregulation date is too little too late in the face of international competition – after nearly 10 years of debate about liberalising markets, Deutsche Telekom AG still charges rates vastly more expensive than phone companies in Britain or the US – The liberalisation and privatisation of Telekom is a model example of how delaying necessary reform does not pay off in the end but rather creates more problems, he said, admitting the BDI must put its own house in order – When I first came to BDI and began asking about Internet addresses, people told me sorry, we’re not connected – I just couldn’t believe I was the only one on the Internet, he said.
Commenting on its figures (page seven), Cray Computer Corp says the narrower losses in the fourth quarter and year are due primarily to development contract revenue of $2.125m related to the Cray-3/Super Scalable System and its expense control efforts; it expected the loss in 1994 as the it continued the design, development, manufacture and marketing of its supercomputers, and expects to be ready to deliver its first Cray-4 by mid-year, but warns it needs about $20m in new capital to get the Cray-4 to market and generating revenue; it hired Marleau Lemire Securities Inc in January to help it win new equity from institutional investors.
IBM still doesn’t get it is a recurring plaint as the company tries harder and harder to emulate the actions of more successful companies in the industry, but sad to say, it still has a long way to go: everyone that attended the National Computer Conference, then the premiere US event, in Anaheim back in the days of Jobs and Woz remembers the way Apple Computer Inc hired Disneyland for one evening so that all attendees could get in free – it was wonderful, because you could get on all the best rides (apart from the ones with the notorious Closed for Renovations signs on them) without having to queue; this week, IBM Corp seemed to have got the message, because it imaginatively staged a major AIX briefing at EuroDisney… but then absent-mindedly omitted to allow attendees anywhere near the theme park, or even schedule in any spare time.
