Cowen & Co said it reiterated a buy on Shiva Corp, saying the modem maker was one of the best plays tied to the Internet: Shiva shares jumped $6.25 to $55 on Friday and traders said investors may be anticipating a takeover of the company.
Domino Printing Sciences Plc warns that while the technical problems that hit its first half results have been resolved, in July it first experienced a new and unrelated technical problem associated with supplies from third parties; subsequently the problem proved to be of a greater dimension than initially anticipated and it has caused significant disruption to the business with the result that substantial costs have been incurred; the board believes the technical problem has now been resolved but the negative impact on sales and margins will continue through to the end of the financial year.
Sunnyvale-based General Magic Inc has reorganised and created three new divisions: Magic Cap and Telescript software divisions, and a worldwide field operations unit.
Japanese trading giant Marubeni Corp, Tokyo, will join the Indonesian telecommunications venture, to be named Pramindo Ikat formed by France Telecom and Indonesia’s PT Astratel Nusantara, which are set to take a combined stake in the venture of nearly 80%: Marubeni will take an 8% stake in the joint venture, which will be capitalised at $207.8m, with the remaining stake being held by the World Bank’s International Finance Corp, UK’s Common Wealth Development Corp and local investors in Indonesia; the venture has the franchise to install 516,000 telephone lines throughout the island of Sumatra (CI No 2,690), spending a total of $605m to install the circuits by spring 1999; Indonesia’s state-run company PT Telekom will lay 200,000 new telephone lines, and the joint venture and PT Telekom will jointly operate the new lines and the existing 500,000 telephone lines on the island, but 15 years after operations start, the venture will hand over all facilities to PT Telekom.
Ottawa-based Newbridge Networks Corp’s chief executive Terry Matthews told the company’s annual meeting that US West Inc would use Newbridge’s Asynchronous Transfer Mode switches: Matthews said the contract was not yet signed but details would be released shortly.
One of Ing C Olivetti & Spa’s new multimedia Envision personal computers have been snapped up quickly in Australia – by thieves: industrial espionage is thought to be behind the theft of one of three prototypes of Envision, which can connect a television, personal computer and telephone into one unit; the product is expected to go on worldwide sale in mid-October following its launch in Italy this week; the company said the police are investigating the theft, which took place at the Sydney launch, but no information has been given yet; Olivetti says it is the first company in the world to develop a product like Envision, which looks like a video recorder but has an in-built personal computer floppy disc and CD-ROM drive; the company said it’s offering a $3,750 reward.
Madrid-based Telefonica de Espana SA said the US Federal Communications Commission has authorised its Telefonica Larga Distancia subsidiary to operate domestic phone calls in the US, including Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands: the subsidiary, in which the company’s Telefonica Internacional SA unit has 79%, has been classified non-dominant for international routes except in Argentina, Chile, Spain and Peru, and that the same decision is expected for Colombia, which will enable it to increase capacity in non-dominant routes without having to seek authorisation, it said; Telefonica said the Federal commission has also authorised it to operate private lines between Puerto Rico or the Virgin Islands and the Domincan Republic.
Content from our partners
Matsushita Electric Industrial Co Ltd has set up a business machines unit in Manila, documents from the Philippine Securities & Exchange Commission say: Matsushita Business Machine Corp of the Philippines, has authorised capital of $23.2m and its product lin
e will include printers, copiers and scanners.
The foreigners’ share of Japan’s semiconductor market rose to 22.9% in the second quarter from 22.8% in the first, the White House said: US Trade Representative Mickey Kantor said he was pleased by the data but said that he hopes that more progress can be made in the future under the US-Japan semiconductor pact.
Kuala Lumpur-based Measat Broadcast Bhd, Malaysia’s first satellite operator, has signed a $40m deal with Philips Malaysia Sdn Bhd for a digital broadcasting system, and will begin its inaugural service to a regional market by the middle of next year, the national Bernama news agency reported: Measat said its television, radio and data service will initially be available in India, the Philippines and Malaysia, and will be extended later on to Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam and Queensland, Australia; it will be supported by the Malaysia East Asia Satellites to be launched by associate Binariang Sdn Bhd, scheduled to launch its maiden satellite in December and another in August next year; Measat Broadcast will invest $500m over the next five years for a combined Asian Broadcast Centre, satellite systems and video production facilities; Philips said it had also sold a digital system to the Societe Europeenne des Satellites.
Jordan is to privatise its state-owned telecommunications company TCC in the next two to three years, said Jamal Al Sarayrah, minister of post and telecommunications, in London to meet investors at a roadshow for TCC’s forthcoming $50m Eurobond debut: this is due to be launched this week by joint lead managers Paribas Capital Markets and ANZ Grindlays Bank; the Jordan national telecommunications programme involves spending some $210m before 1998, to provide another 300,000 lines, new exchanges and other improvements to the network; the proceeds of the floating-rate note issue will be used to fund this progr amme, along with loans from the European Investment Bank, the World Bank and the Export-Import Bank of Japan, other loans and internal cash flow; while TCC will pay the interest on the seven-year notes, the principal amount is to be guaranteed by the World Bank.
L M Ericsson Telefon AB is standardising on XVT Inc’s C++ tools for its graphical interface development.
Let there be light: MFS Communications Co Inc, Omaha, Nebraska wants to wire the whole world’s cities with fibre-optic Metropolitan Area Networks, but it also wants to offer local telephony as widely as possible even where it has no net; the company has now applied to the Texas Public Utilities Commission for authorisation to provide local telephone exchange services on a co-carrier basis within the state.
