The European Court of Justice has copyright owners worried with a ruling that European Community competition rules can take precedence over national copyright laws, the Wall Street Journal reported: in a case over television listings in Ireland, the court ruled that a copyright holder’s refusal to make material available to other parties can be an abuse of the copyright owner’s dominant market position under Community law; a Washington trade group, Intellectual Property Owners Inc, which numbers IBM Corp among its members, entered the appeal on the side of the television networks, arguing that enforcement of some copyrights shouldn’t be considered an antitrust violation.
Oracle Corp is scheduled to join Digital Equipment Corp tomorrow to announce Oracle7 optimised for servers using DEC’s 64-bit Alpha RISC.
And Oracle Corp and Sony Corp are preparing to announce their digital newsroom technology system of computer servers and software for digitising, archiving and re-using news clips: the system will enable newsrooms to put written text, broadcast video and graphics into the computer and repackage them for other uses, such as on-line distribution; the system is built around Oracle’s Media Server software and Context searching software and Sony’s broadcast news computers; the initiative is a challenge to market leader Avid Technology Inc.
Mountain View, California Web browser specialist Netscape Communications Corp has sold equity stakes in itself to five larger companies, Times Mirror Co, Knight-Ridder Inc, Hearst Corp, Adobe Systems Inc and the TCI Technology Ventures, unit of Tele-C ommunications Inc; terms were not disclosed, but the five have 11% of Netscape between them.
Telecom Italia and IBM Corp plan joint marketing of cellular phone and portable commputer services and products, with the idea of creating a mobile office able to send facsimile messages, send and receive messages and access databases from anywhere in the world using Telecom Italia’s digital cellular network.
Chantilly, Virginia-based printer maker Genicom Corp is to sell its relay products operations, including its Control Devices Operation, to Chamac Funding Corp of Charlottesville, Virginia on undisclosed terms; relay operations accounted for $14.9m or 6% of its 1994 sales; it regards them as non-strategic.
The Danish government is moving towards liberalisation of its telecommunications market and Tele Danmark A/S will lose its exclusive right to transmit radio and television programmes in the nationwide telecommunications network – the hybrid network will be combined with the ordinary broadband infrastructure and the requirement for a financial separation will be lifted; Tele Danmark will lose its exclusive right to establish broadband networks within municipal borders, and the package also calls for a significant reduction of the rates on broadband circuits; mobile operators will get special rights to direct interconnection with national and international mobile networks; the concession fee Tele Danmark pays to the Danish State will be reduced gradually and completely abolished by the end of 1997; Tele Danmark will now absorb regional telephone companies KTAS, Jydsk Telefon, Fyns Telefon, Tele Sondejylland and international operator Telecom, which the company presently runs as separate subsidiaries.
Weitek Corp, Sunnyvale, California is cutting prices of its Sparc Power Up upgrade chip for Sparcstation 2 and IPX workstation users to $800 from $1,000 – kits with installation tools are down 17% at $1,000; the company credits manufacturing economies created by high volumes.
Commenting on its reduced losses for 1994 (page five), Paris distributor Metrologie International SA, says it broke even at the operating level during the second half, but acknowledges that net expenses remained high pending its $38.5m recapitalisation, which requires among other things the unanimous approval of its banks – eight of the nine have already agreed, it says; it sees a small net loss for
1995.
Worldwide sales of 16- and 32-bit microprocessors reached $10,700m in 1994, a rise of 28.6%, the US Semiconductor Industry Association reckons: the San Jose trade lobby says 1994 sales of non-embedded microprocessors rose 16.6% to 58.7m units; sales of embedded microprocessors rose 3.4% to 54.5m units.
IBM Corp’s IBM Hungary has opened a branch office in Gyor, and plans to open two more regional offices, one in Miskolc and one in Pecs, possibly during the current quarter, each of them employing three or four people; IBM has had a continuous presence in Hungary since 1936.
Hong Kong Telecommunications Ltd is planning a soft launch of its video-on-demand service in April 1996 and a full launch the following July: at full launch, the system will include about 500 hours of on-demand programming and a set of services such as cross-merchandising, infomercials, payment services and home shopping, it told Reuter; tenders for the final system were received last month and the contracts are to be awarded in late July; the pilot system was supplied by IBM Corp, which is also bidding to supply the production system.
If all the warrants and options are exercised, the $1,100m from Craig McCaw and his family will give them a stake of about 23.5% of Nextel Communications Inc after six years.
Canton, Ohio-based Diebold Inc completed its previously announced acquisition of Applied Network Technologies Inc, Waco, Texas; the terms have still not been revealed.
Eastman Kodak Co will be bundling Macintosh and Windows versions of its PhotoEnhancer digital enhancement software from PictureWorks Technology Inc with the new Kodak Digital Camera 40, the Danville, California company announced: the software includes technology that helps the camera adjust for tricky lighting, a system for providing on-screen visual examples for correcting common picture-taking problems, and an integrated picture browser to help users manage a large number of pictures on disk.
Having brought IBM Corp multimedia alumnus Lucie Fjelstad on board to head its Video Systems Division, Wilsonville, Oregon-based Tektronix Inc has expanded her empire by merging with the Network Displays Division to promote synergies between the company’s strengths in video and networking, and drive towards leadership in the emerging multimedia world; the new Video & Networking Division had combined fiscal 1994 sales of $241.8m and has about 1,100 staff worldwide. – o – Anacomp Inc withdrew the public offering of $225m in senior secured notes, previously announced on January 23, due to market conditions.
Berkeley, California-based provider of integrated management, engineering and software implementations for utilities, the government, and large transport companies Tenera Ltd Partnership wants to convert itself into an ordinary coporation.
Compaq Computer Corp, which decries Intel Corp’s Intel Inside sticker campaign, continues the battle with its annual report: the cover carries the tag When you have Compaq on the outside, you don’t have to worry about what’s on the inside.
