The US Justice Department on Friday withdrew its subpoena over Microsoft Corp’s Microsoft Network, but it doesn’t really mean much: the subpoena was a demand for vast piles of documents, but Justice now reckons it knows enough already and will decide whether to bring an anti-trust case based on the evidence it has already gathered.
Although Electronic Data Systems Corp turned in a second quarter net profit up 15.0% at $226.9m (CI No 2,711), Unigram.X hears that the General Motors Corp unit is down to counting pencils in an effort to trim spiraling costs – turnover per employee has sunk like a stone since its latest round of hirings, some of which could soon turn into firings, according to insiders; last time this happened the company t rimmed 10% of its workforce, and High Noon day look like August 10.
By mid-morning on Wall Street, calm had returned, and prices were little changed from overnight levels.
LG Electronics Inc formally launched its offer to acquire a controlling stake in Zenith Electronics Corp, the last US television set manufacturer and a leader in new digital television technologies, offering $350m or $10 a share to take its stake to 57.7% from 3.8% (CI No 2,708): $164m is going on new shares, and will be spent by Zenith primarily to expand and improve its last US plant, in Melrose Park, Illinois, which makes tubes – which are sent to Mexico, where the complete television sets are now assembled; if the US government later this year approves the high definition television standard agreed to by most European and US electronics manufacturers, Zenith stands to receive substantial royalties from others using its technology if the new market grows.
Intel Corp wasn’t exactly sure why the market over-reacted to the company’s second quarter, which it thought was a pretty good quarter, but the Wall Street Journal has the explanation: although Intel only fell about four cents short of the published Wall Street consensus for quarterly earnings of $1.03, they are devious people, those analysts, and while they had left their published forecasts unchanged, some of them had been calling favoured clients that they thought the number would really be between $1.10 and $1.20 a share; those favoured clients are not going to be too happy now, and the ploy won’t go down so well next time.
Toys R Us Inc, the vast retail chain dedicated to children is to sell family-oriented multimedia software in all 618 US stores: the software and related products for the stores will be supplied by NewMedia Express , a joint venture of Mattel Inc and Davidson & Associates Inc, which will serve as a single-source supplier of software and provide services such as title mix management, stock balancing, and electronic order processing.
But Pawtucket, Rhode Island toy maker Hasbro Inc has ended its efforts to develop a mass-market virtual reality games system: in 1992, we began development of a home virtual reality games system which would give consumers a real point of difference, it said – we have created that system but at a price which would simply be too expensive to mass-market; we believe, however, that there are many other applications for the proprietary technology we have developed and intend to exploit it in various areas, including education, training and other commercial applications, the company is promising.
The UK Office of Telecommunications confirmed that it will be publishing conclusions based on responses to last December’s consultative document A Framework for Effective Competition tomorrow morning: while the pricing recommendations it will put forward are expected to contain few surprises, analysts said the document may spark off a major industry rift over policing.
Commenting on its figures Radius Inc said production delays and increased higher costs cut into earnings in its fiscal third quarter, in which it lost $3.1m; overall revenue and gross margins were lower than anticipated due to initial production delays with Radius’s new Mac O
S products.
Sprint Corp and its cable television consortium have chosen code division multiple access technology for their Personal Communications Services network: the Sprint consortium includes Tele-Communications Inc , Comcast Corp and Cox Communications Inc: the news is a fillip for Qualcomm Inc, which licenses the technology to manufacturers.
Paging Network Inc said it added 582,419 pagers as of June 30, bringing total number of pagers to 5,415,269, a 45.7% increase over the number in service in June 1994.
Apple Computer Inc launched sales and marketing operations in Brazil last week at the Fenasoft computer fair, and says it expects to create a strong presence in Brazil’s growing market, Reuters reports: Apple will enter the market with a sales staff of 14 people and an advertising campaign; by the end of the fourth day of the fair, Apple had sold $7.5m in computers, printers and software, Apple officials said; its next move may be to begin producing in Brazil where large US firms such as Compaq Computer Corp and IBM Corp already manufacture – the high tariffs here makes you consider manufacturing; we won’t manufacture ourselves, we want to investigate subcontract manufacturing in Brazil, the company noted.
Sapiens International Corp NV says the Nasdaq National Market has delisted the company’s shares, since it no longer meets the net tangible asset listing qualifications: the company is seeking a review of Nasdaq’s decision and said it is in compliance with its public reporting obligations and will do its damndest to see its shares remain publicly tradeable; it believes its current cash reserves, estimated at over of $30m as of June 30, are more than enough to fund ongoing operations and a return to profits.
Interactive Data Corp, based in Lexington, Massachusetts, not Wilton, Connecticut (that’s a disguised Correction), was acquired by Dun & Bradstreet Corp in 1988 from Chase Manhattan Corp and originally put on the block a couple of years later, but Dun received no serious offers at that time: it paid $140m for it, so the $201m Pearson Plc is to pay means it washed its face.
Compagnie des Machines Bull SA chairman Jean-Marie Descarpentries reiterated the company’s goal of hitting break-even in 1995 and said Bull Europe was already profitable; industrial partners NEC Corp, Motorola Inc, Dai Nippon Printing Co and IPC Corp Ltd are now expected to buy into Bull in September.
Computer Associates International Inc has had to extend its tender offer for Legent Corp yet again, this time to July 25 as the Justice Department makes up its mind whether to impose restrictions on it.
IBM Magyarorszag Kft, IBM Corp’s wholly-owned Hungarian subsidiary, says that it expects to boost its annual turnover by 20% this year.
Strategic is an impressive-sounding word, but Xephon Plc’s iconoclastic Handbook of IBM Terminology pricks the bubble by defining it as IBMspeak for a product, architecture, theory or concept that is currently in vogue and seems likely to stay in vogue for a while.
