*** MP3.com sued over insurance claim
NEW YORK (AP) - MP3.com has been sued by an insurance company over
the online music company's demand for a payment of $5 million for
some of the millions of dollars in losses resulting from its
copyright violations. Westport Insurance Corp. said Tuesday in the
lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan that the San
Diego-based music company is seeking $5 million toward the $170
million it set aside for settlements. Westport refused, saying it
denied coverage because "MP3.com misrepresented its business
practices, engaged in willful violations of the U.S. Copyright Act
and entered into settlements without Westport's prior consent." In
its lawsuit, Westport asked for a judicial declaration that it is
not liable for any loss caused by the illegal acts of MP3.com. Last
year, U.S. District Judge Jed S. Rakoff in New York ruled that
MP3.com had intentionally violated the copyrights of the music
companies when it allowed consumers to have access to unlicensed
music. The company settled with four large record companies - Warner
Music Group, BMG, EMI and Sony Music Entertainment - and arranged
licensing deals with each of them.
Full article at: http://www.infobeat.com/fullArticle?article=406340337
*** Yahoo! CEO Tim Koogle to step down
SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) - Tim Koogle is stepping aside as chief
executive of struggling Internet bellwether Yahoo! Inc., though he
will stay on as chairman. The company also announced Wednesday that
its first-quarter operating earnings will come in at "approximately
break-even," well short of Wall Street's expectations. Full-year
results also could miss targets. Koogle, who will remain CEO until a
replacement is found, said he felt Yahoo needed an infusion of new
talent. The news followed a day of intense speculation after trading
in shares of Yahoo were halted shortly after the markets opened
Wednesday. The company had canceled an appearance at an Internet
conference in New York. Shares dropped fell $1.38 to $21 before
trading was halted on the Nasdaq Stock Market. After the news was
released, shares fell another $2.31, or 11%, to $18.69.
***Also: Yahoo, Nasdaq explain trading halt, see
http://www.infobeat.com/fullArticle?article=406340224
Full article at: http://www.infobeat.com/fullArticle?article=406340219
*** Census Bureau reports on e-commerce
WASHINGTON (AP) - In its first-ever report on e-commerce activity,
the Census Bureau found that in 1999 about one-half of 1% of all
retail sales took place on the Internet. Business-to-business deals
accounted for more than 90% of the online sales. The report released
Wednesday showed that the dollar value of e-commerce activity varied
significantly among different sectors, although almost all industry
groups were engaged in e-commerce to some degree. Twelve percent, or
$485 billion, of the total value of all manufacturing shipments were
sold electronically. Merchant wholesalers came in second at 5.3%,
and service industries - including travel services, brokerages and
publishing - had 0.6% of their sales values online. Manufacturing
companies and wholesalers have used proprietary networks - such as
the Electronic Data Interchange - that pre-date the widespread usage
of the Internet. This, the report states, is one of the reasons why
business-driven firms sell so much more online than do
consumer-driven companies.
Full article at: http://www.infobeat.com/fullArticle?article=406340301
*** EToys files for bankruptcy
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Troubled Internet retailer eToys filed for
bankruptcy Wednesday and said it will shut down its Web site by the
end of the day. The online toy seller's stock, which was last valued
on the Nasdaq Stock Market at 9 cents per share before trading was
halted last week, will officially be delisted Thursday. EToys filed
for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in
Wilmington, Del., where the company is incorporated. In its filing,
the company said that as of Dec. 31, it had assets of $416.9 million
and debts of $285 million. Company spokesman Ken Ross said Wednesday
that debts now far exceed assets on hand. He said the company has
used some of that cash for ongoing expenses and has sold much of its
inventory. In a release Wednesday, the company said it had
liabilities of $274 million as of Jan. 31 and that its liabilities
would exceed any potential proceeds from selling its assets. Last
week, the company sold its BabyCenter Inc. business to Johnson &
Johnson for $10 million.
Full article at: http://www.infobeat.com/fullArticle?article=406340286
*** Nintendo Game Boy set to hit stores
TOKYO (AP) - Nintendo Co. is out to prove that Mario doesn't need
super-sophisticated computer graphics to sell. Game Boy Advance, the
revamped version of the Game Boy portable video game machine, will
not have three-dimensional imagery but offers an extensive game
lineup and a monitor display with thousands of vivid colors. It is
set to hit Japanese stores March 21 for $82 and U.S. stores for
$99.95 on June 11. Mario, the red-capped acrobatic plumber, jumps,
runs and catches golden coins the same as ever on Game Boy Advance,
shown to reporters Wednesday in Tokyo. But the monitor can now show
32,000 colors, far more than the 56 of Game Boy Color, which came
out in 1998. The Kyoto-based company is anticipating demand for Game
Boy Advance to start at 3 million, promising initial shipments of 1
million and planning sales of 24 million in the first year
worldwide. Compared to the latest offering from rival Sony Corp.,
PlayStation2, which delivers dazzling three-dimensional images with
a powerful 128-bit processor, Game Boy Advance offers just the
basics.
Full article at: http://www.infobeat.com/fullArticle?article=406340358
*** German GM to sell cars on Internet
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) - Struggling automaker Adam Opel AG, the
German subsidiary of General Motors Corp., will begin selling cars
at a discount over the Internet in an effort to pump up sales and
freshen its image, the company said Wednesday. The pilot program
will run through July 31 and offer a select range of autos at prices
up to 11% cheaper than on the showroom floor. The move is part of a
push by some automakers, including Ford Motor Co. and GM's British
subsidiary Vauxhall, to slash costs by taking car orders online.
Similar test programs elsewhere have been hindered by delivery
delays and the simple fact that people like to test drive a vehicle
before the buy. Studies have shown most customers use the Internet
to inform themselves about a vehicle before they buy, rather than
place orders online. Even Opel management board member Andrej Barcak
tried to quell big expectations for his company's project Wednesday,
saying it expects to sell only between 250 and 300 autos during the
pilot stage.
Full article at: http://www.infobeat.com/fullArticle?article=406340311
*************************************************
*** Hyundai electronics seeks $2.9 bln
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - Hyundai Electronics Industries Co., one of
the world's leading computer chip makers, said Thursday it was
experiencing serious financial difficulty and unveiled a plan to raise
$2.9 billion by the end of 2001 to reduce debt. The South Korean won
dipped 17 won to 1,193 won to the U.S. dollar Thursday, its lowest level
in more than a year, despite the government's appeal for market calm.
Over the past 10 months, the main stock price index has fallen by half
to a little over 500. The Hyundai chipmaker said in a statement that it
will secure a $842 million syndicated loan to be managed by Citibank of
the United States. It said it will also issue $1.1 billion in corporate
bonds, sell $442 million in assets and securities, and secure $418
million through sales of bonds held by overseas units and $124 million
in fresh loans from creditor banks. Full article at: http://www.infobeat.com/fullArticle?article=404927930
*** Incubators out of favor on Wall St.
BOSTON (AP) - They were supposed to help e-commerce sites up off the
ground, nurturing them with sound advice, and then unloading them at a
profit. But these days, Internet incubators could use a hand up
themselves. Recent weeks have seen waves of dot.com closings, and
incubators - who often hold stakes in many dot.coms - are suffering:
Incubators grew by finding companies with promising business ideas but
that simply lacked a key ingredient or two - office space, or technical
or legal help, for example. They supplied the missing elements and often
invested in the new companies. Many entrepreneurs say working with an
incubator helped. Others say incubators offered them clients in other
"incubatees" and helped them acquire other companies and
recruit talent. And perhaps most importantly, they simply showed more
interest than the typical venture capitalist.But many experts say the
incubatees are kidding themselves and really got little of value. Full
article at: http://www.infobeat.com/fullArticle?article=404927893
*** Desktops are becoming studios
SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) - Gushingly proud young couples are going
online to show off video clips of their newborn. Seniors are reading
stories via streaming video to grandchildren who live thousands of miles
away. People are even Webcasting family trips - jerky images and all.
Thanks to an onslaught of technological advances in digital video,
desktops are becoming production studios, the Internet a massive venue
for videos. It is now easier than ever - and surprisingly affordable -
for consumers to record, edit and broadcast homemade movies. A consumer
can now buy a digital video camera for $1,000, spend a few thousand
dollars more on a computer system and software and get better video-
editing capability than what $100,000 would have bought five years ago,
Worthington said. Without having to drain bank accounts or turn to
professional videographers, people can crop their creations, overlay
graphics and titles and add special effects. And with a few clicks,
budding directors can post their works online, e-mail video clips to
loved ones, or even broadcast them on the Net. Full article at: http://www.infobeat.com/fullArticle?article=404927970
*** Lernout & Hauspie co-founder quits
BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) - The founder of Lernout & Haupsie Speech
Products NV resigned Thursday as prosecutors announced a probe of the
Belgian company, which admitted it may have concealed information from
its auditor. The resignation of company co-founder Pol Hauspie is the
latest in a series of boardroom moves aimed at stemming a widening
scandal at the company. The company's business dealing and bookkeeping
in southeast Asia has been at the heart of an alleged scandal. Also on
Thursday, prosecutors said they had opened an investigation into the
company. The probe and management shakeup follow a slide that wiped out
more than $9 billion of the company's stock market value, and subsequent
suspension of trading on the high-tech stock exchanges. L&H makes
speech and language software used in cars, telecommunications, consumer
goods and the Internet. Full article at: http://www.infobeat.com/fullArticle?article=404927740
----------------------------------------------------
*** TheStreet.com slashes work force
NEW YORK (AP) - Struggling financial news site TheStreet.com
announced a sweeping cost cutting program Thursday that includes
slashing 20 percent of its work force, shutting down its U.K.
operation and dismantling a joint newsroom with The New York Times.
Thomas Clarke, chief executive of TheStreet.com, told investors on a
conference call that the measures would provide a "huge step" toward
the company's goal of becoming profitable by the second half of next
year. "In today's environment, companies have two clear choices:
chart a direct path to profitability or shut down," Clarke said in a
statement. "We're in this for the long haul. And to go the distance,
we must operate at peak efficiency." About half of the expected
annual cost savings of $18 million would come from the closure of the
TheStreet.com's U.K. operation, which was due to run out of money by
the end of the year. TheStreet.com owns 63% of the year-old business
and plans to buy out the other investors for $3 million in cash and
1.25 million shares in stock. Like many other Internet companies,
TheStreet.com has stumbled in trying to find a workable model for
making money from advertising and charging for content.
*** Update: Comdex light on tangible products
LAS VEGAS (AP) - With wall-to-wall prototypes and plenty of buzz
about Bluetooth wireless technology and mobile Web access, Comdex
2000 was unmistakably light on tangible new products for the here and
now. If nothing else, the annual technology extravaganza heralded the
arrival of the mobile Internet appliance, an overgrown handheld
computer shaped like a writing tablet, equipped with a touchscreen
and a wireless connection. Other noteworthy offerings included a new
palmtop computer based on the Linux operating system, a simple
software kit to connect older Palm devices to the Internet via cell
phone and a powerful portable hard drive that can store 6 gigabytes
of digital music, photos or computer data files. National
Semiconductor made perhaps the biggest splash of the show in its
debut as consumer-oriented company. The venerable chipmaker,
borrowing a page from the "Intel Inside" handbook, was showing off a
"WebPAD" line of machines based on its Geode GX1 processor made by
Honeywell, Samsung and Ericsson. Large crowds gathered continually at
the National Semiconductor pavilion, where they could play with
several models and get a glimpse at some further-off prototypes.
*** Election sparks protests online
WASHINGTON (AP) - In Florida, the presidential election won't end.
Online, the protests and humorous jabs have only begun. Internet
sites devoted to what one entrepreneur calls the "Perpetual Election"
have sprung up. They hawk "Bush Wins" newspapers and organize
demonstrations and revote efforts. Amazon.com even used a mock
"butterfly" ballot - like the controversial one in Palm Beach County,
Fla. - to peddle books, music and lawn and patio products. While the
stalemate between Republican George W. Bush and Democrat Al Gore
drags on in the courts, cyberspace again has moved with speed and
ease on the latest American fascination. Jack Kennedy, a Democrat and
circuit court clerk in Wise County, Va., created his own Web site so
voters could flood the local court with e-mails demanding a new vote
in Palm Beach County, at the heart of the disputed vote count. His
effort was born to "spontaneous outrage that Al Gore would get more
votes cast for him and still lose in the state of Florida," Kennedy
said. The site, Revotepalmbeach.com, offers a form that generates an
e-mail to the circuit court in Palm Beach County requesting a revote
there. Since the morning after the Nov. 7 election,
Trustthepeople.com has offered blank affidavits for Florida voters to
sign if they believed their ballot was confusing.
*** Encyclopedia Web site cuts 75 jobs
CHICAGO (AP) - Web-based encyclopedia Britannica.com has slashed 75
jobs from its work force in a restructuring move aimed at expediting
its move toward profitability, officials said. The job cuts, which
will reduce the company's staff by nearly 25%, will be made over the
next two weeks, mostly in the firm's Chicago headquarters. The
company plans to focus on its most popular services, which include
providing information through the encyclopedia, magazines and other
resources available on the site. It will also reduce costs by
eliminating some features developed by Britannica writers and
editors. Britannica.com's Web site was launched 13 months ago and was
temporarily shut down due to an unanticipated crush of users.
Internet surfers worldwide were attracted to the site as a way to get
the entire Encyclopedia Britannica for free for the first time. The
printed version sells for $1,250, and previously was available on the
Internet only for a subscriber's fee.
*** German Web providers get flat rate
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) - Internet use via telephone lines should get
a whole lot cheaper in Germany beginning next month. Under a ruling
Thursday by government regulators, Deutsche Telekom AG must give
competing Internet service providers flat-rate access to its lines.
The new rules, to take effect in February, allow companies such as
AOL Europe to pay one fee for unlimited local access - as is the norm
in the United States - instead of paying for each incremental minute.
The shift could well spur commerce in Europe's biggest economy, which
has lagged about two years behind the United States in embracing
online commerce. Germany's telephone market is deregulated. But
Deutsche Telekom still owns 97% of the so-called "last mile," the
actual wire that connects main trunk lines with people's houses.
Therefore, people have few options but to use Deutsche Telekom when
accessing the Internet from home.
************************************************
*** Priceline plans layoffs, CFO resigns
NORWALK, Conn. (AP) - Priceline.com, the Internet-based,
name-your-own-price system for travel and other services, is cutting 16%
of its work force and said that chief financial officer Heidi G. Miller
is leaving after only eight months on the job. The Norwalk-based company
made these announcements in conjunction with its third-quarter earnings
report, in which it reported a loss of one cent per share. The results
met lowered analyst expectations. After closing at $6.84, up 65.6 cents,
in regular trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market, shares of Priceline
slipped to $5.19 during the after-hours session. Priceline said it was
laying off 87 people from its 535-member work force. The layoffs and
other changes would result in a fourth-quarter charge of about $9
million. Priceline, which started out two years ago offering
name-your-own price airline tickets, expanded into other areas,
including rental cars, home mortgages, telecommunications services, gas
and groceries.
*** Globalstar struggles to survive
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - The stars never seemed to align right for
Globalstar Telecommunications Ltd., a mobile satellite phone company in
a financial free fall likely to end with a thud if management doesn't
come up with money by next summer. Globalstar's plan to sell phones that
provide great reception in remote areas by tapping into a constellation
of 48 satellites sounded good to many investors, but the business hasn't
panned out for a variety of reasons, analysts say. Part of the problem
has been poor execution by Globalstar's management, but the San
Jose-based company also has been hurt by several factors beyond its
control. The extenuating circumstances include the failure of two rival
satellite phone companies, Iridium LLC and ICO Global Communications,
which spooked consumers about the stability of a service that requires
an upfront investment of several hundred dollars. The increased range
and declining costs of cellular phones also have made satellite phones
tougher to sell.
*** Qualcomm earnings slightly ahead
SAN DIEGO (AP) - Wireless company Qualcomm Inc. reported earnings
that were slightly ahead of expectations Thursday as royalties from its
licensed technology helped make up for a slowdown in one of its major
markets that resulted in an 11% drop in sales revenue. In the three
months ended Sept. 30, Qualcomm posted net income $139 million, or 17
cents per share, compared with $136 million, or 24 cents per share, in
the year-ago quarter. Excluding one-time costs, the company earned 25
cents per share. Analysts expected earnings of 24 cents per share,
according to a survey by First Call/Thomson Financial. Revenues totaled
$635 million, down from $1.1 billion in the same quarter of 1999. Sales
were dragged down by a slowdown in the sales of Qualcomm's patented CDMA
mobile phone chip sets in South Korea after that country ended subsidies
on mobile phones.
*** Cingular swaps spectrum
NEW YORK (AP) - Cingular Wireless, the new national cell phone
company without a network in New York City, is filling part of that gap
by trading mobile phone licenses in California and Nevada for some New
York area spectrum. The swap with VoiceStream Wireless, announced
Thursday, will also give Cingular some additional spectrum in St. Louis
and Detroit. Cingular, formed last month through a joint venture between
SBC Communications and BellSouth, said the acquisition will provide
about half the wireless spectrum the company needs to serve the New York
market. The company is expected to fill the rest of its needs by bidding
in an upcoming auction of spectrum licenses by the federal government.
The deal doesn't include any money or network infrastructure, so
Cingular won't be able to make immediate use of the acquired spectrum,
which covers New York City and its suburbs, including parts of
Connecticut, New Jersey and northeast Pennsylvania.
*** Review: PlayStation2 vs. Dreamcast
NEW YORK (AP) - Is the new PlayStation2 truly the ultimate in home
entertainment? From its scarcity in stores and Sony's ad blitz, you
might think so. But better to assess the sleek, black matte video gaming
machine by sizing up the competition: The year-old Sega Dreamcast has
six times as many titles written for it to date (175), costs half as
much at $149 and has a built-in 56K modem. And this fall, Sega
introduced a $21.95-a-month online gaming service, complete with
Internet access and e-mail. The PlayStation2, meanwhile, has no modem -
only a port for an eventual network card that Sony officials vaguely
promise will become available some time in the future to be able to jack
into a high-speed broadband connection. So there's no online
PlayStation2 gaming - yet. The machine does offer other, substantial
compensations, however. The console plays CDs and DVDs in addition to
games and is equipped with two USB and one IEE1394, or FireWire, port
for eventual speedy (400 megabit-per-second) data transfers from
peripherals ranging from hard drives to digital video cameras.
****************************************
*** Shares of Microsoft hit 2-year low
REDMOND, Wash. (AP) - Shares of Microsoft fell sharply Monday,
hitting a two-year low amid concern about the future of the personal
computing market. Microsoft Corp. fell as low as $49.56 per share in
trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market before closing at $50.38, down $3.38.
The 6.3% drop was part of an overall downturn in technology stocks,
spurred by lowered earnings expectations. The Redmond, Wash.-based
software giant is expected to post earnings Wednesday that are in line
with Wall Street predictions. Analysts surveyed by First Call/Thomson
Financial predict earnings of 41 cents per share, up 3 cents from a year
ago. See http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2570618964-81d
*** Half of U.S. homes have computers
WASHINGTON (AP) - Americans' access to computers and the Internet has
grown dramatically over the past 20 months with computers now in more
than half of all households, a new government report said Monday. The
share of households with computers rose from 42.1% in December 1998 to
51% in August of this year - a total of 53.7 million households, the
Commerce Department found in its latest survey of computer usage. The
number of households with Internet access also soared, hitting 41.5% in
August, up from just 26.2% in the previous 1999 survey. But as in past
surveys, the government found a gap with whites and people living in
cities much more likely to have computers and Internet access than
minorities and those living in rural areas. See http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2570618622-409
*** UN: Robot sales boom
GENEVA (AP) - U.S. and European purchases of manufacturing robots
have taken off, and the buying boom could extend to robot vacuum
cleaners for the home when they are introduced later this year, the
United Nations said Tuesday. The United States bought a record 15,063
robots last year, a 39% increase over 1998, the 352-page report said. EU
sales rose 16% to just over 15,000. The survey is published by the
United Nations' Economic Commission for Europe and the International
Federation of Robotics. It said robot sales have begun to recover in
global leader Japan after a dip in the 1990s because of economic
slowdown, but that they remain slow. There are now 742,500 robots
working in industry around the world, more than half of them in Japan,
the report said. It predicted strong growth for the United States and
Europe. See http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2570621058-e43
*** Intel unveils chip for cell phones
SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) - Intel Corp. unveiled a chip Monday that will
allow cell phone users to hold conversations and access the Internet at
the same time. The new chip, which is not expected to hit the U.S. cell
phone market for another two years, also promises to provide smooth,
video-friendly Internet access - a significant improvement over the
limited text-only service currently available. The new, so-called flash
memory chip is being designed for the next generation of Web-enabled
cell phones, an Intel spokesman said. The chip will require less energy
and Internet access will be four times faster. See http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2570623091-1fb
*** Verizon wireless delays IPO
NEW YORK (AP) - Verizon Wireless Inc. is postponing its initial
public offering of stock due to volatile market conditions that have
pounded the share prices of rival mobile phone companies. The planned
IPO by the nation's largest wireless provider, slated to raise up to $5
billion, is the most prominent deal yet to be put on hold because of
stormy conditions on Wall Street. Few details were revealed in Monday's
short statement from Verizon Communications and Vodafone Group, parent
companies of the Verizon Wireless joint venture they formed earlier this
year. The IPO, expected to occur by the end of the year, would have
raised money for the company to expand and upgrade its wireless network.
See http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2570619580-03d
*** Anonymous Internet posting not protected
MIAMI (AP) - In a ruling that challenges online anonymity, a Florida
appeals court declared Monday that Internet service providers must
divulge the identities of people who post defamatory messages on the
Internet. Critics of the ruling say it could have a chilling effect on
free expression in Internet chat rooms. The ruling comes against the
efforts of the American Civil Liberties Union to protect the identity of
eight individuals who posted anonymous missives on a Yahoo! financial
chat room about Erik Hvide, the former CEO of Hvide Marine Inc. See http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2570618085-502
**********************************************
*** Toshiba agrees to pay government
BEAUMONT, Texas (AP) - Toshiba Corp. has agreed to pay the U.S. $33.5
million in cash and merchandise to settle a lawsuit involving
potentially defective laptop computers sold to government agencies, the
U.S. Department of Justice announced Friday. An unspecified portion of
the settlement - $23 million in cash and $10.5 million in merchandise -
comes from a $2.1 billion settlement of a similar class-action lawsuit
last January, said U.S. Attorney Mike Bradford. Toshiba has not admitted
legal liability or even acknowledged a defect in its notebook computers.
However, Bradford said the company has issued a software patch to
prevent possible malfunction by floppy disk controllers in about 60,000
Toshiba laptops the government has bought since 1998. See http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2570554078-006
*** Clinton directs agencies on systems
WASHINGTON (AP) - The promise of new generations of handheld devices
and phones that receive high-speed video and data is bumping up against
limits imposed by overcrowded airwaves already occupied by the Pentagon
and the private sector. To ease the congestion, President Clinton
directed federal agencies Friday to determine whether existing
government and commercial users can be relocated from these frequencies
so they can be used to offer new wireless services worldwide. Clinton's
action raises the possibility that the military and some commercial
services will have to move frequencies. The Defense Department has
satellite systems and communications services already on the bands. See http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2570555512-92c
*** Microsoft announces in-car software
DETROIT (AP) - Microsoft Corp. introduced its newest software for
in-car computing devices Sunday, as well as the industry standards it
would like to see adopted for how computers and cars swap information.
Analysts predict that by 2006, nearly 50% of all new cars - and 90% of
luxury vehicles - will have some kind of Internet capability. Dozens of
automakers and electronics companies are vying for position in the young
market. See http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2570599465-1b9
*** Web cos. take China in stride
HONG KONG (AP) - David Vong is bullish on China's Internet. Despite
sweeping new Chinese restraints on online businesses, his Hong Kong
company is buying a Web services provider in China for $1 million and
designing a state-run Internet site. More deals are on the way. The
rules create "obstacles of course, but we planned for them,"
said Vong, co-founder of the i100 Internet services company. He's not
the only Web entrepreneur taking things in stride. The Chinese
government spelled out limits early this month on foreign ownership in
Web firms, required all Internet companies to get licenses and ordered
access providers to guard against content deemed subversive or otherwise
objectionable. See http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2570592718-af7
*** Nevada plans to OK bets on PCs
LAS VEGAS (AP) - Nevada gaming regulators plan to allow state
residents to use computers to place sports bets, though they said Friday
they do not see the trial project as a step toward Internet wagering.
Within the month Nevada residents will be able to legally place bets 24
hours a day on baseball games, horse races and other sports using a
computer site operated by Coast Resorts Inc. But just because gamblers
can use their home PCs to put money on their favorite teams, don't
confuse this proprietary betting system with Internet gambling, said
Dennis Neilander, a member of the state Gaming Control Board. While the
state board approved the wagering communication technology this week,
Neilander said the software will undergo a 30-day field trial before
receiving the green light. See http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2570556204-e09
*** Congress weighing Internet filtering
WASHINGTON (AP) - Four Republicans are promoting legislation that
would force schools and libraries to use Internet filtering software or
lose federal dollars intended to help buy Web access. The effort is
alienating civil liberties groups, conservatives and industry
executives. The proposal would be a boon to companies such as NetNanny
and SurfControl, whose popular filtering software schools and libraries
would have to buy. No money is provided to buy the software. Introduced
in the Senate by Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Rick Santorum, R-Pa.,
the plan is attached to an appropriations bill that could get a final
vote this week. Reps. Ernest Istook, R-Okla., and Charles Pickering,
R-Miss., are behind the effort in the House. See http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2570592414-658
******************************************************
*** Update: EU to block Vivendi, Seagram deal
PARIS (AP) - European authorities are expected to deny French
conglomerate Vivendi clearance to buy Seagram Co., concerned that
Vivendi's Canal Plus pay television unit would get preferential access
to films from Seagram's Universal studios, a French newspaper reported
Thursday. Le Monde reported that Mario Monti, Europe's top antitrust
regulator, would temporarily block approval of the $30 billion merger on
Friday. The newspaper also said Monti would launch a four-month detailed
inquiry into the deal. The deal would create a major media conglomerate
called Vivendi Universal, linking Vivendi's large TV, satellite,
Internet and wireless communications holdings with Seagram's Universal
movie and music studios. See http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2570533713-0f7
*** Gateway posts rise in 3Q profits
SAN DIEGO (AP) - Avoiding the slump facing some rivals, computer
maker Gateway Inc. said Thursday that its third-quarter profits jumped
35% over last year. In the three months ended Sept. 30, Gateway, known
for quirky ads and faux cowhide boxes, earned $152.6 million, or 46
cents per share, compared with a profit of $113.2 million, or 35 cents
per share, in the year-ago quarter. Sales rose 16% to $2.53 billion to
$2.18 billion. The results met the consensus estimate of analysts
surveyed by First Call/Thomson Financial. Gateway's profits stand out
amid recent bad news from industry stalwarts. Intel, Dell Computer Corp.
and Apple Computer have seen their stock prices tumble in recent weeks
after warning that quarterly revenues would be below expectations. See http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2570534245-6a6
*** Intel rival AMD tops estimates
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Chip maker Advanced Micro Devices posted its
first calendar year in the black since 1995, reporting it shattered
quarterly sales records as it made significant inroads against
arch-rival Intel Corp. in the high-end processor market. Confirming
speculation customers are flocking to its new Athlon high-performance
and Duron value-end processors, AMD said Wednesday it doubled sales of
those chips from the previous quarter to 3.6 million units in the
three-month period ended Oct. 1. The company projected its worldwide
market share would grow to about 20% by year's end. Investors seemed
pleased by the results, shares closed Thursday up 31 cents to $22.13 on
the Nasdaq Stock Market. See http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2570533573-83a
*** Panel urges 'Net protection for kids
WASHINGTON (AP) - Local and federal governments need to spend
significantly more money to train police and prosecutors to hunt down
Internet predators in cyberspace and shut down Web sites containing
child pornography, a congressional commission recommends. In a report to
be sent to Congress next week, the commission - created to protect
children from explicit content online - also called for law enforcement
agencies to create a master list of Internet sites that contain child
pornography. See http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2570533372-121
*** Nature Conservancy uses Internet funds
ENTERPRISE, Ore. (AP) - Helped by $5 million from the Internet
community, The Nature Conservancy has bought a large chunk of a prairie
ecosystem that once stretched across the Northwest. The conservancy used
$11.7 million to buy the 27,000-acre Camp Creek Ranch, which represents
20% of the Zumwalt prairie. The bunchgrass prairie covers 146,000 acres
overall - one third the size of Rhode Island - and is home to one of the
nation's densest concentrations of nesting birds of prey. The Nature
Conservancy has known about the Zumwalt for 20 years, but has not been
able to raise the money to buy its pieces. The Internet age has changed
all that. See http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2570536010-0b8
*** Urbanfetch to cut consumer clients
NEW YORK (AP) - New York-based online delivery service Urbanfetch.com
will be closing its consumer operations within the next couple of weeks
to concentrate on delivering goods for corporate clients, the company
confirmed Thursday. The company said the corporate-focused service it
launched six months ago, Urbanfetch Express, is both profitable and
larger than its consumer operations in New York and London combined.
Corporate clients include Sony, Conde Nast and Ernst & Young.
Urbanfetch CEO Ross Stevens hinted on Tuesday that closing its consumer
operations was a possibility, when the firm announced that it had called
off negotiations to be acquired by its rival Kozmo.com. ###
**************************************************
*** Yahoo! shares plunge on ad warning
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Shares of Yahoo! Inc. fell nearly 21% in trading
Wednesday, even though it beat third-quarter earnings expectations,
after it warned that the ongoing fallout among other Internet
companies could affect its revenues in future quarters. Yahoo's
earnings reports are eagerly awaited by investors because the company
has consistently outperformed expectations and it is one of the few
"blue-chip" Internet firms that have turned a profit. But with many
Internet companies slashing their marketing budgets or simply calling
it quits, Yahoo is receiving increased scrutiny as a reflection of
the health of the Internet industry. See
http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2570513077-1e9
*** Motorola stock sinks 19%
CHICAGO (AP) - Motorola Inc. shares plummeted nearly 19% Wednesday
after the telecommunications giant warned that slowing growth in its
mobile phone sales will crimp earnings for the rest of 2000 and 2001.
The company informed analysts of its lowered outlook a day after
issuing a third-quarter earnings report that sent a mixed message to
Wall Street: a 66 percent leap in operating earnings but a 23 percent
drop in orders for cell phones. Schaumburg, Ill.-based Motorola, the
world's No. 2 cell phone manufacturer, said it now estimates it will
sell 410 million to 425 million phones this year - down from its
earlier projection of 425 million to 450 million. See
http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2570513588-4e9
*** Intel rival AMD tops estimates
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Chip maker Advanced Micro Devices posted its
first calendar year in the black since 1995, reporting it shattered
quarterly sales records as it made significant inroads against
arch-rival Intel Corp. in the high-end processor market. Confirming
speculation customers are flocking to its new Athlon high-performance
and Duron value-end processors, AMD said it doubled sales of those
chips from the previous quarter to 3.6 million units in the
three-month period ended Oct. 1. The company projected its worldwide
market share would grow to about 20% by year's end. Net income for
the quarter was $408.6 million, or $1.18 a share, compared with a net
loss of $105.5 million, or 36 cents per share, in the year-ago
quarter. See
http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2570513484-d00
*** Hughes reports 3Q loss
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Hughes Electronics reported a loss of $93.5
million in the third quarter, due mainly to increased investment in
new technologies. The company, a subsidiary of General Motors Corp.,
said Wednesday it had higher revenues and record growth in
subscribers to its DirecTV service. It also added $3 billion to its
books due to the sale of its satellite manufacturing business to
Boeing. Hughes, which is tracked separately from regular GM shares,
does not report earnings per share. For the three months ended Sept.
30, Hughes reported revenue of $1.69 billion, up from $1.63 billion
in the year-ago period, when it lost $34.9 million. Results from both
periods include a $5.3 million expense from GM's purchase accounting
adjustments. Shares of Hughes fell $2.40 to $26.60 in trading on the
New York Stock Exchange. See
http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2570512400-a1d
*** Internet policy critic elected
NEW YORK (AP) - The election of a longtime Internet policy critic and
a high-profile free access advocate to the board that governs the
global network could give noncommercial users more influence over the
Net's development. Karl Auerbach of Santa Cruz, Calif., and Andy
Mueller-Maguhn of Germany will join the 19-member board of the
Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). Their
two-year terms start next month. ICANN's decisions on such technical
but commercially charged issues as domain names will influence the
Internet's use and growth. The organization, created in 1998 to take
over naming duties from the U.S. government, is often accused of
favoring vested business interests over individuals. See
http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2570511802-68b
***Also: European Web suffix nears approval, see
http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2570512926-3f4
*** Report questions Silicon Valley
PALO ALTO, Calif. (AP) - Silicon Valley may become a victim of its
own success. A report released Wednesday says the sprawling area
south of San Francisco could lose its place as the world's premier
high-tech zone because of the high costs of living and doing business
here, a shortage of qualified workers and worsening traffic. While
many blue-chip technology companies such as Intel Corp. and Yahoo!
Inc. are anchored here, startups are increasingly finding more
attractive environments in other Internet clusters such as New York's
"Silicon Alley," Massachusetts' Route 128, Germany's "Silicon Saxony"
and Singapore's "Intelligent Island," the report said. See
http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2570511856-724
***********************************************
*** Update: Physics prize lauds info technology
STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) - The Nobel Prizes in physics and chemistry
were awarded Tuesday to six scientists who helped bring about the
Information Revolution of ever-smaller and faster personal computers,
pocket calculators, cell phones, CD players, lifelike TV screens and
Gameboys. The physics prize went to Jack Kilby, who invented the first
integrated circuit while at Texas Instruments in 1958, and two
physicists whose work contributed to satellite and cell phone
technology: Herbert Kroemer of the University of California-Santa
Barbara and Zhores Alferov of the A.F. Ioffe Physico-Technico Institute
in St. Petersburg, Russia. The chemistry prize went to Alan Heeger, 64,
of the University of California-Santa Barbara, Alan MacDiarmid, 73, of
the University of Pennsylvania and Hideki Shirakawa, 64, of the
University of Tsukuba in Japan. See http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2570494366-d78
*** Also: Integrated circuit inventor honored, see http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2570485737-dbb
*** EC is set to OK AOL-Time Warner
BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) - The European Commission is set to approve
the $129 billion merger between America Online Inc. and Time Warner Inc.
Wednesday on condition that links with German media giant Bertelsmann
are cut, a source said. The EC will also require that the new company
sever ties with a joint venture with Bertelsmann in France, said the
source, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The merger has faced
smoother sailing since Time Warner last week dropped a separate joint
venture plan with EMI Group of Britain, which would have created a major
music company. European regulators had strongly opposed that deal. The
antitrust division of the Commission opened a probe into the proposed
AOL-Time Warner merger in June, stressing the need for an open,
competitive environment in the emerging cyber music and entertainment
markets. See http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2570486596-002
*** Yahoo! shares fall in after hours
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Shares of Yahoo! Inc. fell 8% in after-hours
trading, even though it beat third-quarter earnings expectations, as the
company warned that the ongoing fallout among other Internet companies
could affect its revenues in future quarters. Yahoo's earnings reports
are eagerly awaited by investors because the company has consistently
outperformed expectations and it is one of the few "blue-chip"
Internet firms that have turned a profit. But with many Internet
companies slashing their marketing budgets or simply calling it quits,
Yahoo is receiving increased scrutiny as a reflection of the health of
the Internet industry. See http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2570493792-cd0
*** IBM to build chip plant in New York
NEW YORK (AP) - IBM Corp. said Tuesday it will put $5 billion - the
largest investment in the company's history - into building the world's
most advanced chip-making plant and expanding capacity at existing
semiconductor plants. The plant, to be located 60 miles north of New
York City, is part of efforts to satisfy demand for the chips that power
Web site host and traffic-management computers and to position IBM as a
supplier of chips for portable Internet devices. The computer maker
expects to hire 1,000 people for the new manufacturing plant at the
Hudson Valley Research Park in East Fishkill. The $2.5 billion factory
is scheduled to begin operations in the second half of 2002 and reach
full production by early the following year. See http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2570492294-32e
*** Lucent Technologies shares plunge
NEW YORK (AP) - Shares of Lucent Technologies plunged to a two-year
low Tuesday after the beleaguered producer of telecommunications
equipment warned for the third time this year that profits won't meet
steadily declining expectations. Crushing hopes for a speedy turnaround
by the former Wall Street darling, Lucent disclosed after major stock
markets closed that earnings for the quarter ended Sept. 30 have come in
below the company's previous forecasts to Wall Street analysts Lucent's
stock, which had already lost nearly two-thirds of its value since late
1999, plunged even further in Tuesday's after-hours trading. The stock,
the second-most widely held in the nation with about 5.3 million
shareholders, slid below $25 after closing at $31.375 on the New York
Stock Exchange. See http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2570492993-101
*** Kodak invests in digital Web site
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Eastman Kodak Co. is taking a stake in a digital
photography Web site and plans to market a how-to CD with Circuit City
to boost sales ahead of the holiday shopping period. Executives at the
world's largest photography company did not disclose the amount of
Kodak's investment in PhotoAlley.com, but said the company would receive
an observer seat on PhotoAlley's board of directors and become the
exclusive print processor for the San Francisco-based company, receiving
revenue from each developed picture. See http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2570476206-1b5
*****************************************************
*** House looks at AOL-Time Warner deal
WASHINGTON (AP) - The House Commerce Committee chairman sought
answers Wednesday about conditions that federal regulators reportedly
are considering before approving the merger between America Online
and Time Warner. The deal, the largest in U.S. corporate history, is
being reviewed by the Federal Trade Commission and the Federal
Communications Commission. The FTC staff has determined it will block
the deal unless the two companies agree to share their high-speed
cable lines with other Internet providers. The FCC reportedly is
weighing a similar condition. See
*** Report: Exodus back in talks
NEW YORK (AP) - Exodus Communications has reportedly jump started
talks to purchase Global Crossing Ltd.'s Internet hosting services
for about $6.5 billion in stock. The boards of both companies were
scheduled to meet Wednesday night to discuss the acquisition, The
Wall Street Journal reported on its Web site on Wednesday. In July,
Bermuda-based Global Crossing rejected a similar offer from Exodus to
purchase Global Crossing's Web hosting business, called GlobalCenter.
At the time, Global Crossing officials felt Exodus' offer was too
low. But analysts said the landscape may have changed since then in
light of Worldcom Inc.'s $3 billion acquisition earlier this month of
Intermedia Communications Inc., which held a controlling interest in
Web hosting company Digex Inc. See
*** Priceline stock plunges 43%
NORWALK, Conn. (AP) - Shares of Priceline.com fell 43% Wednesday
after the company warned Wednesday that its third-quarter revenues
are likely to fall short of expectations. Priceline, known for its
name-your-price system for online purchases of airline tickets, hotel
rooms, rental cars and home mortgages, said third-quarter revenues
would likely range from $340 million to $345 million. Analysts had
expected revenues of approximately $360 million to $380 million.
Third-quarter 1999 revenue was $152.2 million. Shares of Priceline
fell $8.14 to $10 in midday trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market. See
*** MTVi cuts 105 jobs, shelves IPO
NEW YORK (AP) - MTV's online operation became the latest to fall in
the dot-com shakeout on Wednesday, shelving its IPO plans and firing
one-fourth of its staff, or 105 people. MTVi, which groups the Web
sites for MTV, VH1 and two other sites, Sonicnet.com and Country.com,
filed a registration with the Securities and Exchange Commission in
February to offer shares to the public. Since then a sharp downturn
in investor enthusiasm for Internet companies has led to a series of
retrenchments and closures. TV veteran John Malone owns 10% of MTVi
following a deal in May 1999 under which his TCI Music company traded
several music sites including Sonicnet in exchange for the stake. See
*** Dell slashes computer prices
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) - Dell Computer Corp. plans to slash prices on
some computer servers and PCs, passing on savings to consumers as
parts become less expensive. But investors hardly celebrated Dell's
announcement on Wednesday - a day many tech stocks were down - as
shares of Dell fell to a 52-week low midday on the Nasdaq Stock
Market. The stock recovered somewhat to end regular trading at
$32.44, down $1.19, or 3.6 percent. Round Rock, Texas-based Dell said
it was reducing prices on its PowerEdge servers 14 to 47%. The
servers, or computers used to host Web sites, now will sell for as
low as $1,199 to $13,000 or more. See
*** Sony PlayStation 2 delayed
NEW YORK (AP) - Sony is scaling back by half its release of 1 million
PlayStation 2 video game consoles in North America, set for Oct. 26,
because of production delays that stem from a component shortage.
However, Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc. said Wednesday that
it would still meet its target of shipping 10 million units of the
game worldwide, including three million to North America, in its
fiscal 2001 year, which ends March 31. Sony will ship 500,000 units
of PlayStation 2 to 20,000 stores in North America, instead of the 1
million units initially projected. The initial shipment will be
followed by 100,000 units per week. Sony said the modified schedule
will not affect availability of PlayStation 2 during the holiday
season, anticipating there will be about 1.3 million units in supply.
See
-------------------------------------------------------------
*** E-mail group proposes privacy plan
WASHINGTON (AP) - Getting "spammed" is the price of using e-mail, it
seems. As mounds of unwanted messages pile up in inboxes, hawking
anything from debt reduction to weight reduction, some large e-mail
marketing companies want to make sure four-letter words of
frustration aren't directed at them or their clients. The Responsible
Electronic Communications Alliance - a new group of 15 companies that
includes DoubleClick, 24/7 Media, Bigfoot Interactive and ClickAction
Inc.- proposed privacy standards Monday that it hopes will cut down
on Internet spam. The group presented the standards at an industry
trade show in Boston as sort of a "Good Housekeeping Seal of
Approval" for Internet direct advertisers. The plan is still in draft
form, and a final proposal will not be approved before next year. ###
*** Palm reports solid first-quarter
SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) - Quarterly profits topped forecasts at Palm
Inc., fueled by strong demand for the new entry-level version of its
popular handheld computer and new revenues from licensing its
operating system to rival device makers. The top seller of electronic
personal organizers reported Monday that net income totaled $17.3
million, or 3 cents share, for its first quarter ended Sept. 1. In
the same period last year, Palm earned $9.7 million, or 2 cents a
share. Excluding one-time factors, operating income more than doubled
to $23.9 million, or 4 cents a share, compared to year-ago levels of
$10 million, or 2 cents a share. See
*** Fujitsu to use power-save chips
SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) - Fujitsu Ltd. plans to announce Monday that
two of its new computer laptops being introduced in Japan in early
November will carry power-saving chips manufactured by Transmeta
Corp. The announcement by the Japanese company comes only two weeks
after Sony Corp. announced that new models of the VAIO computer
PictureBook - scheduled to reach U.S. stores in October - would be
powered by Transmeta's much-hyped Crusoe microprocessor. The Crusoe
was unveiled in January after five years of highly secretive research
and development at Transmeta, an upstart player based in Santa Clara,
Calif. The chip promises to double the life of batteries, and Sony
and Fujitsu laptops are poised to be among the first in what appears
to be a growing parade of mobile computer products taking advantage
of the revolutionary microprocessor. See
*** Red Herring, Latin sites partner
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Redherring.com, an Internet site focused on
technology and business news, is forming a partnership to have its
articles translated in Spanish and Portuguese and distributed online
in Latin America. Under the deal announced Monday with Miami-based
Punto-Com Inc., up to three Redherring.com stories will be posted
daily on www.punto-com.com, the Spanish-language site, and
www.ponto-com.com, the Portuguese site. Both sites provide news and
analysis on Latin American Internet businesses. The first articles
are to appear next month. San Francisco-based Red Herring
Communications, founded in 1993, also publishes the magazine Red
Herring. ###
*** Grateful Dead fights music pirates
MILL VALLEY, Calif. (AP) - The Grateful Dead's communal spirit is
part of rock 'n' roll lore, but the band is just as merciless as the
next capitalist when a digital pirate tries to make money off its
music. "They have always been vehement about this: If someone is
going to make money, it should be them," said Eric Doney, the Dead's
attorney. "The music belongs to the creators, not someone else." The
Dead's no-nonsense stance underscores the depths of the music
industry's anti-piracy sentiment as computer technology makes more
recordings available for free over the Internet. The laws protecting
unlicensed use of copyrighted material face another litmus test Oct.
2 when a federal appeals court is scheduled to review a ruling that
banned a music-swapping site run by San Mateo-based Napster Inc. See
*** Pagans find fellow believers online
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - Amid the swirling cigarette smoke in a downtown
coffeehouse, the ancient pantheon of pagan deities comes alive,
conjured up over coffee in the conversation at two adjoining tables.
The Indiana Asatru Council, a group of modern pagans who worship old
Norse deities and a smattering of other gods, has gathered for its
weekly meeting. Between drags off cigarettes, the talk meanders from
Thor - the lightning-wielding god of thunder - to the mysteries of
the universe and then to the Internet, the medium that's helping this
tiny religious community to grow. Not long ago, most pagans preferred
to keep their beliefs secret, fearful of the public's mistaken belief
that they are devil-worshippers. There were no coffeehouse meetings
for them. See
**********************************************
*** Intel warning highlights problems
SANTA CLARA, Calif. (AP) - Giant computer chip maker Intel Corp.'s
plans to remake itself into a new-world Internet parts supplier have
been tripped up by old-world problems of profits and production. Amid
signs the world economy is slowing, Wall Street now is questioning
whether Intel and other bellwether companies can be nimble enough to
keep the good times going even during the bad. Under the leadership
of chief executive Craig Barrett, Intel's stock had been basking in
the glow of plans to transform the 32-year-old company from the PC
components business to a supplier of Web-enabling parts for
everything from the hot handheld computer market to large computer
servers and cellular phones. See
*** PC sales growing, but prices down
NEW YORK (AP) - Intel's stock woes this past week notwithstanding,
personal computer sales are still growing in the United States -
though unit prices are getting lower. Unit sales of PCs to dealers
are expected to reach 16.8 million this year, up from an estimated
14.9 million in 1999, according to the Consumer Electronics
Association. Meanwhile, dollar volume on PCs is expected to rise to
$16.8 billion this year from $16.4 billion in 1999 - a dip from the
previous year's $16.6 billion, the trade association says. The
average PC price is projected to be $1,000 this year, compared to
$1,500 in 1995. However, PCs are facing a new kid on the block:
Internet appliances, which are expected to cost less than half as
much as PCs and whose proliferation could force PC prices even lower.
See
*** First wireless virus reported
BEAVERTON, Ore. (AP) - A company that produces antivirus software for
computers says it has discovered the world's first virus that targets
the increasingly popular wireless hand-held computers. Although
computer viruses have become common, including last spring's virulent
"Love Bug" virus, reports of viruses infecting the smaller personal
digital assistants, or PDAs, had previously proved unfounded. This
time, however, "this is not a false alarm," said Vincent Gullotto,
director of McAfee.com's Anti Virus Emergency Response Team in
Beaverton, which found the virus Thursday night. The so-called Palm
OS/Phange virus did not appear widespread, Gullotto said. Palm OS is
the operating system used by roughly 79% of the world's hand-held
computers. It has wireless technology that can connect to the
Internet or to networks. See
*** Motorola, palm ally on 'smart phone'
SANTA CLARA, Calif. (AP) - Motorola Inc. and Palm Inc. are teaming up
to develop a "smart phone" for early 2002 release that will serve as
a wireless Internet device, phone and personal organizer. The latest
heavyweight alliance in the race to combine wireless and Web in a
single gadget was to be announced Monday as the top names in
technology and electronics gather for the Personal Communications
Industry Association's GlobalXChange conference, this week in
Chicago. Details on the Motorola-Palm device were sketchy, though
both companies envision a color display larger than the screen on
current Web-enabled phones, but smaller than the 3-inch by 4-inch
displays featured on today's Palm organizers. See
*** 1-Stop gov't Web site debuts
WASHINGTON (AP) - Want to track your Social Security benefits? Need
to apply for a federal student loan? Having trouble surfing the
Internet to find the nearest veterans hospital? Want to reserve a
campsite at a national park? Now, Americans can do all these things
by logging on to a single U.S. government Web site:
http://firstgov.gov. The one-stop Internet site
consolidates 20,000
government Web sites - some 27 million web pages - into one. Rather
than digging through the Social Security Administration's Web site to
print out a form to track retirement benefits, or entering their
salary information to calculate it themselves securely, users can go
straight to FirstGov to easily see all the government transactions,
shopping and more they can do online. See
*************************************************
*** One-stop gov't Web site debuts Fri.
WASHINGTON (AP) - Want to track your Social Security benefits? Need
to apply for a federal student loan? Having trouble surfing the
Internet to find the nearest veterans hospital? Want to reserve a
campsite at a national park? Beginning Friday, Americans can do all
these things by logging on to a single U.S. government Web site:
http://firstgov.gov. President Clinton will explain how the site
works in an Internet address Friday afternoon The one-stop Internet
site consolidates 20,000 government Web sites - some 27 million web
pages - into one. The new site allows Internet users to search for
government information by topic, rather than by agency. It also is
designed to reduce the time Americans now spend traveling to
government offices and waiting in line. The site was developed, at no
cost to taxpayers, by a team led by Internet entrepreneur Eric
Brewer. He's chief scientist at Inktomi Corp., a software developer
and marketer in Foster City, Calif. The government will pay $165,000
a month to maintain the site, which can search a half a billion
documents in less than one-quarter of a second and handle millions of
searches a day. The White House Web site ranked near the bottom among
federal Internet destinations, Brown University researchers said.
*** Clinton: Bring tech to disabled
FLINT, Mich. (AP) - President Clinton got a close-up demonstration
Thursday of technology that's helping people with disabilities
connect to cyberspace: computers that let people read books online in
Braille, send e-mails with a gaze of their eyes or translate Web
pages aloud. Clinton flew to Michigan, a battleground state in the
presidential election, to announce actions that his administration,
private companies, universities and organizations are taking to make
sure more of the millions of Americans with disabilities can join the
digital economy. The White House said 17.3 million Americans have
severe disabilities. See
*** Intel warns on 3Q expectations
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Intel Corp. Thursday warned that its
third-quarter revenues will be significantly below Wall Street's
expectations, sending tremors throughout the high-tech industry. The
news sent shares of Intel down $12.92, or 21%, to $48.06 in
after-hours trading. Intel finished the regular trading session on
the Nasdaq Stock Market at $61.48, down $1.58. The stocks of several
other high-profile companies also got caught in Intel's downdraft.
The Santa Clara, Calif.-based chip maker said its revenue for the
period ending Sept. 30 will range between $8.5 billion and $8.7
billion, about 3% to 5% higher than second-quarter revenue of $8.3
billion. Industry analysts had been expecting third quarter revenues
of $9 billion to $9.1 billion, or 9% to 10% higher than the second
quarter. See
*** Not all prefer to go online
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) - The head of the Texas AFL-CIO understands
technology's benefits for future generations of workers. But Joseph
Gunn's personal office is void of computers, and he would rather let
his wife and staff surf the Internet on his behalf. "To some degree I
feel bliss in being ignorant," said Gunn, 69, one of millions of
Americans saying no to Net life. A study released Thursday by the Pew
Internet and American Life Project found that more than half the
American adults who don't currently use the Internet have little or
no desire to get online. They are America's Netless by choice, and
their lack of interest suggests it will take a lot more time than
many had thought before the United States becomes a fully connected
nation. See
*** AT&T to test new Web-TV system
NEW YORK (AP) - AT&T Corp. will use cable TV software from Liberate
Technologies for a trial run with interactive television, a decision
that comes soon after Microsoft warned of delays in a competing
system for AT&T. The pilot program will be introduced in an
undisclosed market late this year, AT&T said Thursday in a statement.
If the pilot is successful, the companies expect to introduce
interactive TV services commercially. The new relationship marks a
big gain for Liberate's technology platform in the convergence of the
Internet and television, a long-talked about frontier that has picked
up steam with the recent introduction of AOLTV by America Online.
Liberate's software adds online capabilities such as e-mail, chat,
shopping and Web browsing to any TV in the house. See
*** Regulators want Internet choices
WASHINGTON (AP) - Pressure is mounting on America Online and Time
Warner to formalize their pledge that consumers will have choices in
how they get future generations of Web service. Both companies have
said they will give Internet providers other than AOL access to Time
Warner's high-speed cable systems. That would mean a consumer
subscribing to super fast Web connections offered by Time Warner
could select from multiple online providers. But regulators from the
FTC and FCC - both of which are examining the mammoth deal - want to
see that commitment strengthened. Sources have said that the FTC
staff will block the deal, unless the companies promise to allow
competing Internet companies onto their cable systems. See
************************************************
*** German Internet tax plan blocked
BERLIN (AP) - Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder on Monday ruled out a tax
on Internet use that critics said would stifle the development of the
Web in Germany, Europe's biggest economy. In a speech to business
leaders, Schroeder quashed a new Finance Ministry rule floated last
month to tax businesses every time employees use company computers
for private Internet surfing. "Private use of the Internet in the
workplace is tax-free," he said at the World's Fair in the central
town of Hanover. And people who use their own personal computers to
log onto the Internet for work are entitled to tax breaks, he said.
Telecommunications and computer firms had criticized the government
for the tax plan, arguing that it would be a bureaucratic nightmare
that would discourage many people from becoming familiar with the
Internet. Still, the government will push ahead with new rules to
protect intellectual property rights, Schroeder said. See
*** Sun Microsystems buys Cobalt
PALO ALTO, Calif. (AP) - Sun Microsystems Inc. said Tuesday it is
buying Cobalt Networks in a $2 billion stock deal, a move designed to
strengthen the company's entry in the server appliance market. Sun is
a leading maker of high-end servers that power corporate networks and
Web sites. The stock-for-stock merger, however, means Sun plans to
expand into the growing arena of server appliances, which are geared
to specific tasks and are typically less expensive. Mountain
View-based Cobalt Networks, Inc. is a leading supplier of server
appliance products. Under the deal, Sun said each Cobalt common share
will be converted into half a share of Sun stock. The acquisition is
expected to be completed by Dec. 31. See
*** Web broadcast venture shuts down
NEW YORK (AP) - Pseudo Programs Inc., which had been broadcasting 10
hours a day of Web-based interactive programming from its New York
studio, has turned itself off after running out of cash. Pseudo sent
all of its 175 employees home Monday when negotiations stalled with
some potential buyers of the company, CEO David Bohrman said Tuesday.
Pseudo, a pioneer in pairing live video with the interactive power of
the Internet, is continuing to talk with suitors. But its run may
have ended for good, Bohrman said. The shutdown of Pseudo continues
the shakeout of unprofitable Web-based entertainment ventures. Recent
casualties also included Pop.com, backed by Steven Spielberg and
other big names, which was supposed to Webcast video, animation and
other programming. It was closed earlier this month before even
getting started. See
*** Yahoo! switches book partners
SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) - Yahoo! Inc. is ending its partnership with
Amazon.com Inc., the top online seller of books, and creating a much
larger link with Amazon rival barnesandnoble.com. Until Monday, a
search for a topic on Yahoo!, the world's most popular Internet
portal, resulted in not only a list of appropriate Web sites but also
a link to books on that subject available at Amazon.com. Starting
Tuesday, the suggested vendor will be barnesandnoble.com, which is
majority-owned by New York-based Barnes & Noble, the No. 1 book
seller in the United States, and German media giant Bertelsmann AG.
See
*** Personal TV recorders offer ad tool
SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) - The companies that are revolutionizing the
way people watch television, letting them zip past commercials at the
push of a button, are still giving marketers a chance to catch
viewers' attention. TiVo and ReplayTV, leading competitors in the
nascent industry of personal video recorders, plan to let advertisers
preload commercials and promotional material in their devices
starting this fall. TiVo's subscribers, however, will not be forced
to watch the preloaded material: They can opt to play the promotions
or not. ReplayTV subscribers will also get to choose whether or not
to watch the commercials. The new marketing tool could be significant
in an age in which cable television and VCRs - and now also personal
television recorders - have all drastically cut the amount of time
couch potatoes spend watching ads. See
************************************************
*** FBI investigates missing laptop
SAN DIEGO (AP) - Authorities tried Monday to determine if the
suspicious disappearance of a laptop computer belonging to the chief
executive officer of Qualcomm Inc. was a simple case of thievery or
an act of economic espionage. The FBI has begun an investigation at
the request of Qualcomm executives, said a spokeswoman for the
bureau's Los Angeles office said. Qualcomm declined to comment on the
investigation. The San Diego-based company is a leader in wireless
technology - a boom market of the burgeoning telecommunications
revolution - with $3.9 billion in revenues last year. It designs and
produces chips for wireless communications devices and holds hundreds
of patents whose royalties provide it with the bulk of its earnings.
See
*** GM starts Internet car sales
DETROIT (AP) - General Motors Corp. is expanding its online shopping
services to enable consumers to check vehicle inventories and get a
guaranteed "e-price," allowing customers to complete all but the
final steps of a vehicle purchase on its GM BuyPower Web site. A
dealer would handle the final purchase paperwork, the company said
Monday. A pilot program starting the first week of October will cover
the seven Oldsmobile dealers in the Minneapolis, Minn. area. In
August, Ford Motor Co. and its 4,200 Ford Division dealers announced
a similar program, set for launch in California within weeks. The
automakers' Internet sales systems are a response to the growing
popularity of online vehicle sales programs, seen as a threat to the
traditional dealer-automaker relationship. See
*** Dell pushes on with Internet plan
ROUND ROCK, Texas (AP) - Dell Computer Corp. has created a division
to oversee its data storage products and systems businesses and has
begun selling two new servers, computer hardware used to host Web
sites. Dell announced plans for the new division and computer
hardware on Monday. In April, the company that made its fortune
selling personal computers said it would begin focusing on
Internet-related services and equipment by increasing support
services, expanding into wireless products and investing in startup
companies. Dell's storage business grew 70% in the last 12 months,
with overall sales approaching $1 billion annually. Dell's overall
sales in that time were $28.5 billion. See
*** Costco, Yahoo! in free net deal
SANTA CLARA, Calif. (AP) - Costco Wholesale Corp., owner of a chain
of warehouse stores, is teaming with Yahoo! Inc. and another company
to provide free Internet access for Costco's 25 million members in
the U.S. As part of the deal announced Monday, Costco and Yahoo! will
set up a co-branded Web site with information on deals at Costco and
a link to costco.com, the company's e-commerce site. Costco will be
promoted on several Yahoo! pages and featured on Yahoo! Shopping. The
Internet access will be provided by Spinway Inc. Costco customers
will be able to begin using the Internet access after picking up a
free CD-ROM at stores or downloading software from costco.com.
Costco, based in Issaquah, Wash., operates 237 warehouse stores in
the U.S. and a total of 332 worldwide. The stores are designed for
small-to-medium-sized businesses but also serve individual customers,
or members. See
*** Germany won't tax Internet
BERLIN (AP) - Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder on Monday ruled out a tax
on Internet use that critics said would stifle the development of the
Web in Germany, Europe's biggest economy. In a speech to business
leaders, Schroeder quashed a new Finance Ministry rule floated last
month to tax businesses every time employees use company computers
for private Internet surfing. Telecommunications and computer firms
had criticized the government for the tax plan, arguing that it would
be a bureaucratic nightmare that would discourage many people from
becoming familiar with the Internet. Still, the government will push
ahead with new rules to protect intellectual property rights,
Schroeder said. Many companies are upset with plans to levy a tax on
the makers of equipment such as high-speed modems and CD-burners that
can be used to copy protected material. The proceeds would go to
rights holders such as pop stars and authors. See
*********************************************
*** CEO's PC, possibly secrets, vanish
IRVINE, Calif. (AP) - The personal portable computer of Qualcomm
Inc.'s chief executive officer, which apparently contained valuable
company secrets, disappeared from a hotel conference room moments
after he addressed a national business journalists' meeting. Irwin
Jacobs left the computer unattended on a podium or an adjoining table
in the Hyatt Regency-Irvine ballroom on Saturday for 15-20 minutes
when he stepped down to talk to a small group after addressing about
90 members of the Society of American Business Editors and Writers.
Jacobs told people at the conference that the IBM laptop, which he
had used for a slide show-type presentation focusing on Qualcomm's
wireless telecommunications technology, contained proprietary
information that could be valuable to foreign governments. See
*** DSL leaves some customers fuming
NEW YORK (AP) - The ads are all over: Get high-speed Internet through
your phone line! Baby Bells and Internet service providers are
pushing digital subscriber lines, or DSL, as the way to get the home
connected. What the ads don't say is that DSL installation fails in
many cases, leaving customers fuming. At its best, DSL is an elegant
technology that speeds up Internet downloads more than 10 times
compared to a dial-up modem, yet leaves the phone line free for
regular calls. And it's offered at a price many are willing to pay
for a fast onramp to the Internet: typically $40 to $60 a month after
a setup fee of $100 to $300. See
*** Online research ethics lacking
LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) - Don't get too comfortable with your online
support group. A researcher may be lurking, recording your
outpourings in the name of science. In fact, a researcher posing as a
member of the support group may be posting comments simply to observe
the reaction from participants. As more researchers turn to the
Internet for behavioral studies, there is growing concern about the
potential harm to online users unaware that they have become research
subjects when they discuss diseases, marital problems and sexual
identity crises. Online research ethics - specifically, the lack of
any meaningful guidelines - was one of the chief topics of discussion
this week at the inaugural meeting of the Association of Internet
Researchers. See
***
Also: Researchers looking at Internet, see
************************************************
*** Oracle's 1Q earns more than double
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Oracle Corp. shook off the departure of its
second-ranking executive and rode the continuing demand for its
Internet software to more than double its profit for its first
quarter. The Redwood Shores-based software giant recorded a $501
million profit, or 17 cents per share, for the three months ended
Aug. 31, up from $237 million, or 8 cents per share, in the year-ago
period. The results from both quarters include investment gains and
losses. Analysts polled by First Call/Thomson Financial forecast
earnings of 13 cents per share. See
*** Napster rails against industry
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Napster Inc., the song-swapping software company
battling the recording industry in federal appeals court, says major
record labels maintain a "chokehold" on current music sales avenues.
Traditional methods of developing musical acts and marketing them
widely through traditional channels are firmly under the thumb of a
select few companies, not including Napster, the Redwood City,
Calif.-based company said in the brief filed late Tuesday. The
Recording Industry Association of America's copyright infringement
case against the Napster is scheduled for arguments Oct. 2 before the
9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The RIAA holds that a federal
district judge was correct in ruling that Napster fostered copyright
infringement. See
*** Software maker Abobe's profits soar
SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) - Adobe Systems Inc.'s third-quarter results
easily soared past Wall Street expectations Thursday as demand for
Web publishing software boosted profits 39%. For the three months
ended Sept. 1, Adobe earned $78.3 million, or 61 cents per diluted
share. In the same period last year, Adobe posted a net profit of
$57.1 million, or 44 cents per diluted share. Analysts had expected
Adobe to show a per-share profit of 52 cents in the third quarter,
according to a survey by First Call/Thomson Financial. Revenue for
the three months was $328.9 million, up from $260.9 million a year
ago. It was the fifth consecutive quarter in which the company has
achieved record revenue results, the company said. See
*** SEC warns on 'pre-IPO' fraud
WASHINGTON (AP) - Federal regulators are seeing a number of
securities sales online or by Internet companies, claiming to offer
"pre-IPO" stock to give investors a jump before the firms go public.
They have charged some of the companies with fraud and are warning
investors to be wary of such investments. In a related action
Thursday, the Securities and Exchange Commission announced it had
reached a settlement with 1stBuy.com Inc., a company that operates an
Internet retail site, and its founder, who agreed to pay a $25,000
civil fine. The regulators alleged that they raised some $3.8 million
from 1,200 investors nationwide by making false and misleading
statements about an IPO, or initial public offering of stock, and by
referring to the offering as a "pre-IPO." See
*** Artisan launches new Web unit
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Artisan Entertainment, the distributor of last
year's hit "The Blair Witch Project," is forming a new unit to
oversee its Internet projects and invest in new media companies.
Artisan Digital Media will direct the company's film promotion and
e-commerce efforts, the company said Thursday. It will also oversee
marketing of its films and other projects over the Internet. It was a
clever, grassroots Internet marketing campaign that created buzz for
"Blair Witch" and showed the power of the Web for generating an
audience for films. Since then, most major studios have begun to use
the interactive features of the Web to promote movies. See
*** Web sites for kids criticizes law
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - While federal officials work out the kinks of
implementing a law aimed at protecting children from online
pornography, at least one major Web site for kids is saying the
measure is hurting its legitimate business. Steven Bryan, CEO of
Zeeks.com, said Wednesday the costs of complying with the 1998 Child
Online Protection Act are simply too high. Zeeks.com, the 15th most
popular entertainment site for children according to Media Metrix
Inc., will pull its e-mail and chat-room services Oct. 1. and try to
make up for the predicted 20% loss in traffic with additional games.
COPA requires commercial Web sites to obtain "verifiable parental
consent" before any child under 13 participates in any interactive
activity such as e-mails or chat rooms. See
**********************************************
*** Apple releases operating system
PARIS (AP) - Apple Computer chief Steve Jobs on Wednesday released a
long-awaited public test version of OS X - an ambitious upgrade of
the Macintosh operating system. It's out with the familiar linear
windows that have long organized computer screens. The new system has
sleek graphics, colorful on-screen buttons and sliding windows that
make for easier computing, the company said. "It's unlike anything
you've ever experienced on a Mac before," Jobs told an audience of
more than 3,700 at the opening of the Apple Expo in Paris. A public
test version of the OS X - the X stands for 10 - went on sale
Wednesday in English, French and German at the Paris trade show and
Apple's online stores for $29.95. See
*** Inktomi buys Internet broadcast co.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Inktomi Corp. is adding to its toolbox of
technology that powers some of the Internet's most popular sites with
its planned $1.3 billion purchase of online broadcasting company
FastForward Networks. Inktomi believes the Web broadcasting
technology developed by privately held FastForward will give it a leg
up in the race to deliver the type of live high-quality video and
audio that will attract more traffic to Web sites and ultimately
generate more revenue. The acquisition continues Inktomi's evolution
from one of the Internet's pioneering search engine companies to a
diversified networking business. Internet broadcasts so far largely
have been unsuccessful. See
*** Personal Web data theft flourishing
WASHINGTON (AP) - Bank account search: $249. Available around the
country. Takes 10-18 business days. Ads like this on the Internet are
proliferating, experts say, despite a 10-month-old federal law
prohibiting use of deceptive techniques to get people's personal
financial data from banks. Such techniques, notably "pretext
calling," in which people misrepresent themselves to obtain the
private data of others from banks and other financial institutions,
are flourishing, congressional testimony showed Wednesday. Pretext
callers often pose as law enforcement agents, social workers,
potential employers and other figures of authority. See
*** Bill Gates arrives in India
NEW DELHI, India (AP) - Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates arrived to a
red carpet welcome Wednesday for a brief visit to India to join in
celebrations to mark 10 years of his software firm's operations in
the country. Security was tight when the world's richest man landed
at New Delhi airport on his private jet. Microsoft officials had kept
his arrival schedule a secret, but scores of people had gathered at
the airport to greet the software magnate. During his 24-hour visit,
Gates is expected to announce a new alliance with India's emerging
information technology giant, Infosys Technologies. He will also be
meeting Indian officials as well as reviewing development projects by
the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in the country. See
*** Barnes&Noble to buy Fatbrain
NEW YORK (AP) - In a sign of further consolidation in e-retailing,
Barnes & Noble.com announced Wednesday that it will pay $64 million
to acquire Fatbrain.com Inc., the third largest bookseller in
professional and technical titles. Under the terms of the deal,
Barnes & Noble.com will acquire Fatbrain.com in exchange for $4.25
per share for all the outstanding shares of Fatbrain.com.
Fatbrain.com will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Barnes &
Noble.com. The transaction involves 75% stock in Barnes & Noble.com
and 25% cash for each Fatbrain.com share, Barnes & Noble said. See
/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/
*** Fed Web sites fail to measure up
WASHINGTON (AP) - Congressional investigators say a huge majority of
federal Web sites fail to measure up to the Federal Trade
Commission's standards for Internet privacy, including the FTC's own
site. At the behest of Republican legislators, the General Accounting
Office graded 65 of the government's most popular World Wide Web
sites on the basis of four principles: adequate notice of practices,
choice to give or not to give information, access to change personal
information and assurance that information is secured properly. The
report found that only 3% of federal sites pass. Rep. Dick Armey,
R-Texas, who requested the report, said government Web sites have all
kinds of personal information about the public that should be held to
a higher standard than commercial information that companies glean
when customers visit their sites. See
*** New digital music player rocks on
NEW YORK (AP) - It looks like a portable CD player and it plays
music, but that's only half the story. Or, to be more precise, one
150th of the story. When it hits stores Sept. 18, the Nomad Jukebox
will be the first portable music player with its own hard drive,
allowing it to carry music equivalent to the contents of 150 CDs in a
neat package weighing less than a pound. That's right, you read it
right the first time. The aptly named Jukebox carries a whole library
of music. You can play the songs in any order and make your own
playlists. The Jukebox is perhaps the most exciting gadget yet to use
the digital music technology known as MP3. See
*** Microsoft CEO: politics altered
SEATTLE (AP) - The chief executive officer of Microsoft Corp. said
Tuesday that the federal antitrust case against his company has
altered the way Microsoft approaches politics, including
contributions to candidates. President and CEO Steve Ballmer,
speaking at a luncheon for the Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce,
was hit with the question from an audience member about the Justice
Department's suit against the company and whether it's had an effect
on political contributions. In May 2000, a federal judge ruled in
favor of the Justice Department, which had sued Microsoft, alleging
antitrust violations. The judge ordered Microsoft to be broken into
two separate companies. Microsoft appealed the case, which is
currently before the U.S. Supreme Court, which can take the case or
send it back down to the U.S. Court of Appeals. See
*** Group: Re-evaluate school computers
WASHINGTON (AP) - Billions of dollars spent on school computers and
Internet connections deliver little long-term benefit and could be
better spent on more teachers and other improvements, a group
critical of technology in the classroom said Tuesday. "We've gone
down this highway of bringing computers into elementary schools with
so little debate, and spending such huge sums," said Joan Almon, a
former Baltimore kindergarten teacher and head of the U.S. branch of
Alliance for Childhood. The alliance, an international partnership of
educators, doctors and psychologists based in College Park, Md.,
wants a "time-out" from policies that emphasize computers as an ideal
educational tool for toddlers, preschoolers and elementary school
students. Many experts say there is little direct evidence tying
computer use and higher school achievement. See
*** Corning jumps into DNA chip market
CORNING, N.Y. (AP) - Using a high-volume manufacturing process,
Corning Inc. is swooping into the business of making microarrays -
DNA chips used to analyze thousands of genes at once. The materials
company said Tuesday that its new technology, expected to shift into
high gear by early next year, will speed current production of
microarrays at least 10-fold. That could accelerate genetic research
and speed the discovery of new drugs. The business of selling genetic
information to biotechnology companies, government and academic
laboratories is expected to grow from $250 million to $1 billion in
the next five years, Corning said. The company said it expects to
grab control of as much as half of the microarray market by then and
perhaps overtake market leader Affymetrix, based in Santa Clara,
Calif. See
*** Vandal intrudes OPEC Web site
NEW YORK (AP) - OPEC's Web site was defaced Tuesday night by an
online vandal apparently upset about the worldwide attention being
paid to the organization over soaring oil prices. The online
defacement, a written statement disparaging the Organization of
Petroleum Exporting Countries, is different from a "hack" in that it
is neither technologically difficult to perform nor particularly
harmful to a Web site. Hours after the defacement was first reported,
the Web site became inaccessible. It could not be determined why. The
graffiti-like attack appears at the bottom of the opening screen of
www.opec.org. After several seconds, visitors are taken to the Web
site's main menu. The message urges OPEC members to get "in gear with
the price of crude, we really need to focus on the poverty-stricken
countries, who don't even have enough money for aspirin, let alone
exorbitant (sic) prices for heating oil..." Someone calling
themselves "fluxnyne" apparently takes credit for writing the
statement. See
***********************************************
*** Auto Web exchange clears hurdle
DETROIT (AP) - Five major automakers won federal approval Monday to
set up an online exchange where they envision conducting nearly all
of their $300 billion worth of annual business with suppliers and
each other. The Federal Trade Commission's review of the exchange,
named Covisint, was the first given to an industrywide
business-to-business, or B2B, operation. The FTC said it was giving
Covisint permission to go ahead, but said the venture might still
raise antitrust concerns once it is up and running. Covisint's
partners are General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co., DaimlerChrysler
AG, Renault and Nissan. See
*** Use of Napster quadruples
NEW YORK (AP) - Despite the uncertain legality of the Napster online
music-sharing service, the number of people using it more than
quadrupled in just five months, Media Metrix said Monday. That made
Napster the fastest-growing software application ever recorded by the
Internet research company. From 1.1 million home users in the U.S. in
February, the first month Media Metrix tracked the application,
Napster use rocketed to 4.9 million users in July. That represents 6%
of U.S. home PC users who have modems, said Media Metrix, which pays
people to install monitoring software on their computers. It
estimates total usage from a panel of about 50,000 people in the U.S.
Napster was also used at work by 887,000 people in July, Media Metrix
said. See
*** Breakthrough chip in digital photos
SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) - Digital photography promises to get better
and cheaper with a breakthrough chip expected to be on the market
within a year. Foveon Inc., a Santa Clara-based company founded by
pioneer Silicon Valley chip designer Carver Mead, announced Monday an
image-sensing chip that is capable of producing photos of extremely
high resolution at a fraction of today's costs. The chip, company
officials said, can capture digital images with a resolution of 4,096
by 4,096 pixels - about twice the resolution of 35mm film, and eight
times as much as a typical consumer digital camera. Eastman Kodak two
weeks ago announced a chip that produces the same resolution, but
Foveon said its chip uses a different technique that costs less to
make. See
*** Nintendo to make 'mature' games
SEATTLE (AP) - Even Nintendo Corp., home to such kid-friendly games
as "Super Mario" and "Pokemon," says it's feeling the pressure to
produce more adult-oriented games, a company executive said Monday.
With the video game and entertainment industries under fire by the
government for marketing such games to children, Nintendo recently
released "Perfect Dark," an action thriller in the "first-person
shooter" genre - meaning that the player usually must shoot his or
her way out of danger in the game. Nintendo defends "Perfect Dark" -
rated "M" for mature by the industry's own Entertainment Software
Ratings Board - saying that more than half of today's video gamers
are 18 or older. See
*** Tech start-up won't be AppleSoup
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - A start-up planning to offer Napster-like
technology that will enable consumers to swap digital images changed
its name Monday to avoid a legal fight with a Silicon Valley giant.
AppleSoup, formed by two early investors in Napster, dropped its name
after Apple Computer Inc. warned that it intended to sue for
infringing on its trademark. San Francisco-based AppleSoup adopted
Flycode as its new name. See
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*** Feds weigh in on Napster case
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - The federal government weighed in on the closely
watched case against Napster Inc. for the first time Friday, saying
the music-sharing service is not protected under a key copyright law,
as the company claims. In briefs to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of
Appeals, lawyers for the U.S. Copyright Office said Napster has "no
possible defense" against one of the major arguments by the recording
industry that it facilitates widespread copyright infringement. The
agency, whose position is not binding, sided with U.S. District Court
Judge Marilyn Hall Patel, who in July ruled for the industry, finding
that Napster is contributing to widespread copyright infringement in
violation of the 1992 Audio Home Recording Act. See
*** Slowdown in online advertising
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - A slowdown in online advertising is translating
into a painful comedown for the Internet's glamour stock, Yahoo!
Corp., and other popular Web sites that sell ads to pay their bills.
For the sixth straight day, Yahoo! stock suffered through a wave of
selling Friday, falling $2.81 to $104.12. The Santa Clara-based
company's market value has plunged by $10.5 billion, or 15 percent,
since Aug. 30 amid deepening investor worries about the flagging
market for online ads. The pall hanging over Yahoo! - the owner of
the world's most popular Web site and one of the few profitable
Internet businesses - threatens to spread to other companies whose
fortunes are tied to online advertising. See
*** Web visitors are a valued herd
NEW YORK (AP) - A Web site is a bit like a rowdy party: it's often
difficult to tell just how many people have come and gone. But while
parties are all about levity, the number of visitors to a Web site is
a serious matter. Stock prices rise and fall on visitor counts as
dot-coms fight for the Internet audience. Unfortunately, measuring
Web site visitors is not a precise science and the two chief methods
for keeping track seldom agree. Research firms such as Media Metrix,
Nielsen Netratings and PC Data measure popularity by monitoring Web
surfers, while the Web sites themselves look at data recorded by
their computers. Bob Bowman, chief executive of computer retailer
Outpost.com, is frustrated by what he says are gross undercounts of
the traffic to his Web site by the ratings companies. See
*** Jury still out on high-tech homes
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - The barbecue was linked to the TV in Microsoft's
home of the future, but the real spectacle was a few booths away,
where men were crowding around for a close look at the latest in
ladders. This wasn't just a case of manliness over nerdiness. The
throngs of men attending the CEDIA 2000 trade show the past few days
were professional installers of home entertainment and electronics
systems, the type of work where a sturdy ladder comes in handy. The
conversation was also spirited about the cool tools on display at
CEDIA, the second biggest show of the year for the consumer
electronics industry, run by the Custom Electronic Design &
Installation Association. See
**************************************************
*** Qwest to cut 11,000 jobs
DENVER (AP) - Qwest Communications International Inc. is cutting
11,000 jobs as part of its plans to refocus and streamline operations
following its acquisition of regional phone company U S West. In
addition to the cuts, which will affect mostly white-collar
positions, Qwest will eliminate 1,800 contractor jobs, Qwest chairman
and chief executive Joe Nacchio said Thursday. Nacchio said the
changes would help Qwest refocus on broadband, Internet, wireless,
and bundled services, where he expected to see more growth. He said
revenue - fueled by growth in broadband, wireless and Internet
services as well as telephone service - should reach between $18.8
and $19.1 billion this year, up from a target of $18.5 billion. See
*** Hurdles in foreign telecom takeover
WASHINGTON (AP) - The proposed takeover of VoiceStream Wireless by
German telecom giant Deutsche Telekom cleared one U.S. hurdle
Thursday, even as opposition to the deal mounted on Capitol Hill. The
companies announced that a merger review deadline at the Justice
Department passed without any opposition from antitrust regulators.
But tougher challenges may lie ahead as the companies seek approval
to for the $46 billion deal from the Federal Communications
Commission. That process already has drawn vocal interference from a
group of lawmakers, who say the takeover by Deutsche Telekom - a
company majority-owned by its government - clearly runs afoul of
communications law. See
*** ISP Tiscali to buy World Online
MILAN, Italy (AP) - Italian Internet service provider Tiscali is
buying troubled Dutch rival World Online International in an
all-stock deal valued at about $5.2 billion. The deal would make
Tiscali the No. 2 player among European Internet service providers.
While it is one of the largest Internet service providers in Europe,
World Online has been stumbling this year, while its share price has
tumbled 63%. The company announced a restructuring in July, amid
mounting losses and following a bungled IPO. hursday's deal was the
second major step this week in the consolidation of Europe's
fragmented Internet service provider market. See
*** AMEX to offer disposable numbers
NEW YORK (AP) - American Express said Thursday that it will offer
disposable credit card numbers for safer online shopping. The
initiative, called Private Payments, will be offered free next month
to American Express customers and small business cardholders in the
United States. The program is part of a new series of products the
New York-based company will be launching to address privacy and
security issues that have discouraged many people from online
shopping. Private Payments allows customers to buy online without
transmitting actual card numbers over the Internet. For each online
purchase, the customer obtains a random number from an American
Express Web site that expires after the transaction. See
*** CFTC acts against trade promoters
WASHINGTON (AP) - Federal regulators today announced five enforcement
actions against promoters who allegedly used the Internet to claim
they have reaped huge profits from sure-fire systems for trading
commodities. Disclosure of the actions by the Commodity Futures
Trading Commission came a day after the Securities and Exchange
Commission announced its fourth nationwide "sweep" against online
investment scams, which have cost investors millions in recent years.
The CFTC says it has seen a growing number of online promotions of
expensive trading programs that signal investors when to buy and sell
commodity futures and options contracts, based on technical analysis
of market trends. The commodities involved include foreign currencies
and gasoline. See
***********************************************
*** AT&T Wireless said Eyeing Nextel
NEW YORK (AP) - AT&T Wireless may propose a buyout of mobile phone
rival Nextel Communications at an AT&T board meeting later this month
in a bid to shine new light on one of AT&T's few bright spots, The
Wall Street Journal reported Thursday. The board meeting is also
expected to include discussion of other strategic options for the
overall company, including a potential merger with British
Telecommunications, another struggling giant, or a possible spinoff
of AT&T's long-distance business, the Journal said, citing people
familiar with the matter. According to the report, one source told
the Journal that talks with BT have recently picked up steam, though
the two sides have yet to discuss specific terms. See
*** SEC pursues online fraud
WASHINGTON (AP) - Federal regulators on Wednesday announced actions
against 33 companies and individuals that allegedly used the Internet
to defraud investors by manipulating prices of small-company stocks.
It was the Securities and Exchange Commission's fourth nationwide
"sweep" against online investment scams, which have cost investors
millions in recent years. The 15 new cases all involved so-called
"pump and dump" schemes, in which promoters push up a stock's price
by making false claims about the company, then later sell their own
shares to cash in on the artificially high price. All told, the
schemes fraudulently "pumped up" the value of some 70 stocks by $1.7
billion and netted the perpetrators about $10 million in illegal
profits, the SEC said. See
*** Remarks send Yahoo! stock tumbling
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - A report that Yahoo! Corp. expected advertising
sales to decline accelerated a recent slide in the company's shares
Wednesday, underscoring investors' jitters about the stability of
Internet businesses. Based on comments made by Yahoo! CEO Tim Koogle
during an Internet conference, Dow Jones News Service ran a headline
indicating that the Santa Clara, Calif.-based company was bracing for
a near-term advertising downturn at its online portal - the most
popular destination on the Web. Dow Jones later issued a
clarification that showed Koogle wasn't as pessimistic as the initial
report made him sound, but by then the market had already reacted.
See
*** Also: Yahoo! will compensate musicians, see
*** Interactive TV in next Windows
SEATTLE (AP) - The next consumer version of Windows, due in 2001,
will not only let users watch television on their personal computers
but also support what is being touted as the next big thing in home
entertainment - interactive TV technology , Microsoft Corp. said
Wednesday. The operating system has supported TV viewing since the
Windows 98 version was introduced two years ago. The next version,
codenamed "Whistler," will have code to take advantage of new,
interactive television features currently under development.
Microsoft plans to unveil a prototype of the interactive TV
technology in Whistler at an industry conference in Amsterdam on
Friday. See
*** Home networking technologies ripen
NEW YORK (AP) - The house of the future is coming fast, but the
toaster and the dishwasher won't say when. Many technologies are
already available for interconnecting entertainment systems,
appliances and other gadgets with computers and the Internet, as top
names in all those fields hope to demonstrate this week at a once
obscure trade show for home electronics dealers and installers. And
like so many other aspects of the Internet revolution, it's a
maddeningly simple and expensive matter of wiring - to the home and
around the home - that promises to delay the arrival of a truly
networked, Jetsons-like existence. See
*** Palm starts investment co.
SANTA CLARA, Calif. (AP) - Handheld computer maker Palm Inc. said
Wednesday it is forming an investment division to accelerate the
growth of what it calls the Palm economy - technologies and products
designed for its operating system. Palm Ventures will make strategic
investments in startup companies that are developing products
supporting the Palm platform. The Santa Clara-based company, the
leading maker of handheld computers, is initially investing about $50
million in the new division. Palm holds more than 65% of the
worldwide market for personal handheld computers. Market researchers
expect global sales of all handhelds to quadruple in the next three
years to 32 million units, worth $7.2 billion. See
/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/
*** WorldCom exec goes to MicroStrategy
VIENNA, Va. (AP) - John Sidgmore, who helped build Internet service
provider UUNet Technologies into a multi-billion dollar business, has
agreed to serve as chairman for a subsidiary of MicroStrategy.
Sidgmore, 49, is vice chairman at telecommunications company WorldCom
and has been a board member since February at MicroStrategy, which
makes software that analyzes corporate data on marketing and customer
relationships. Strategy.com works with a variety of companies to put
that information to use. It now has more than 430,000 subscribers.
Sidgmore will be chairman of a two-member board that oversees
Strategy.com. Before his arrival, MicroStrategy president and CEO
Michael J. Saylor had been the only member of Strategy.com's board,
said company spokesman Michael Quint. See
*** Report: Novell may cut jobs
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - Shares of Novell Inc. fell 9% Tuesday on
reports the company is expected to cut up to 25% of its work force.
Several technology Web news sites as well as the Wall Street Journal
have reported that the network software maker is preparing to lay off
as many as 1,400 of the Provo-based company's 5,500 employees. Novell
spokesman Bruce Lowry would neither confirm nor deny the reports,
saying only that the struggling software company will soon take steps
to lower operating expenses. Weak sales of packaged business software
and a slipping market share in networking software drove the Novell's
third-quarter earnings down 83% from the year-ago period to $8.6
million on revenue of $270 million. See
*** MP3.com: Judge may extinguish us
NEW YORK (AP) - Universal Music Group, the world's largest record
company, asked a judge Tuesday to award it up to $450 million in
damages because MP3.com infringed its copyrights, an amount the
Internet music company said would put it out of business. After
considering closing arguments Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Jed S.
Rakoff said he would rule Wednesday afternoon whether MP3.com
willfully infringed Universal's copyrights and may determine how much
MP3.com must pay per violation. Universal's record companies were the
lone plaintiffs at the trial. The nation's four other major record
companies settled with MP3.com after Rakoff found earlier this year
that MP3.com had violated copyrights. See
*** Microsoft celebrates crossroads
SEATTLE (AP) - The standing ovation at Safeco Field on Tuesday was
not for Edgar Martinez or Alex Rodriguez, though the volume certainly
rivaled that of Seattle Mariners fans. Instead, the crowd consisted
of Microsoft Corp. employees, and the clapping, cheering and
hollering was for chairman Bill Gates, who helped found the company
in 1975. Gates led a company-wide meeting that marked Microsoft's
first official recognition of its 25th anniversary, which is coming
at a time when the company is attempting a massive shift in its
strategy and battling in the courts for its very survival. But the
parts of Gates' speech that were open to the news media - about 15
minutes worth - were very positive, focusing on both the company's
past successes and its future challenges. See
*** Pop.com closes before it opens
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Pop.com, the much-awaited Internet entertainment
site backed by Hollywood powerhouses such as Steven Spielberg and Ron
Howard, is calling it quits before ever opening for business. Most of
the company's 80 workers, based in Glendale, Calif., will be laid off
by the end of the week. Executives at DreamWorks and Imagine
Entertainment, partners in the site, decided over the weekend to
cease operations after they failed to find a buyer. Last week, it
looked as if Pop.com would be sold to independent film portal IFILM,
but those talks ended Friday. See
*******************************************
*** Microsoft faces China challenge
BEIJING (AP) - Forget Microsoft's epic antitrust battle in the U.S.
One of the few foreign companies to dominate a major market in China,
Microsoft faces a different sort of menace here: growing resistance
to its power by Chinese officials, patriotic ex-managers and
technology nationalists. The threats underscore the stubborn
obstacles to foreign competition in the vast, largely untapped market
of 1.25 billion Chinese. Despite efforts in China to liberalize trade
by lowering tariffs and allowing more foreign investment, suspicion
of outside influence remains high, and the government is not averse
to intervening in business markets against what it sees as risky
foreign dominance. In the instance of Microsoft, the government says
it's backing an upstart rival to the company's Windows software
program, which runs the vast majority of the world's personal
computers. See
*** Workers say Internet is a vital tool
NEW YORK (AP) - For many Americans, Internet access is not just a
workplace distraction, but a key component of their jobs, a new
report says. About 37% of all full-time workers - or 38 million
people - now have Internet access at their jobs, and they're using it
primarily for work-related research and e-mail, says the report by
the Pew Internet & American Life Project. Rainie says polling of
workers shows that about two-thirds of those with access to the Web
on the job go online at least once a day. Nearly three-quarters of
workers with access say the Internet has improved their ability to do
their jobs. See
*** Labor Unions Turn to Cyberspace
WASHINGTON (AP) - Like their counterparts in business, labor leaders
in the United States have increasingly turned to the Internet to find
new customers, keep the old ones and sharpen their message. What
they've found is a much better ability to organize on a large scale
with less effort. Before the widespread use of e-mail, union
organizers often had to stand outside the gates of a plant handing
out union literature, then track down workers at home. Now a union
representative need only coax a worker's e-mail address out of him or
her to get 24-hour access. See
*** E-commerce start-up for boats begins
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Like many Internet start-ups, Boats.com portrays
its Web site as a sea change in e-commerce. So far, though, the list
of passengers aboard this online vessel is making the biggest splash.
Boats.com wants to become an all-purpose marine site that arranges
sales, financing and insurance for every recreational craft
imaginable, from dinghies to yachts. An armada of other sites offer
similar services, but Boats.com hopes to become a one-stop shop. Even
before it officially launched its site Wednesday, Boats.com lined up
the exclusive endorsements of the industry's two biggest trade
groups, the National Marine Manufacturers Association and the Marine
Retailers Association of America. In exchange for the endorsements,
the nonprofit trade groups received Boats.com stock warrants that
could generate a windfall if the start-up succeeds and sells its
shares in an initial public offering. See
*** Sega launching online game network
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - A year ago, Sega Dreamcast became the first home
video game system with a modem inside. Beginning this week, Sega will
let people use the modem the way it was envisioned: to play games on
a special Internet network built exclusively for them. The SegaNet
service debuting Thursday will let players go head-to-head online and
chat about their games - complete with trash talk, if desired. Until
now, the modem's main advantage was just that it could be used to
download enhancements to Sega games. A SegaNet subscription is $21.95
a month. Players who sign up for 18 months will get a $150 rebate
from Sega, which covers the new, reduced price of the Dreamcast
console. See
**************************************************
*** Man charged for fake Emulex release
LOS ANGELES (AP) - A former employee of an Internet press-release
distributor was arrested by the FBI and accused Thursday of making
$241,814 by putting out a phony release last week that sent a
high-tech company's stock plummeting. Federal authorities identified
the suspect as Mark Jakob, 23, of El Segundo, Calif., who had been an
employee of Internet Wire until a week before the phony press release
about Emulex Corp. was sent to Internet Wire for distribution.
Prosecutors charged Jakob with securities fraud and wire fraud. If
convicted, he faces up to 15 years in prison. The SEC also filed a
civil complaint against Jakob seeking repayment of all profits plus
unspecified civil penalties. Emulex lost more than $2 billion in
market value when its stock fell as low as $43 from the previous
day's closing of $113.063. The stock eventually recovered most of its
ground after the company denied the reports. See
*** Web service, record label ink deal
NEW YORK (AP) - In the limitless scope of the Internet, it's little
more than a blip: the next time thousands of music fans check their
e-mail, they'll find a message telling them about an alternative rock
band and offering a chance to listen to one of its songs. But the
mass e-mailing, the result of a deal announced Thursday between
Warner Music Group and MP3.com, could hint at what's to come as
record labels and the Web-based music service providers they've been
battling try working together to reach consumers. The focal point of
the new partnership is MP3.com's "singleserving" e-mail service,
which will target electronic messages to specific audiences of
consumers - all of them regular users of the online music site -
introducing them to new music from recording labels. See
*** Wireless network capability expanded
WASHINGTON (AP) - Consumers could see the development of more
high-speed devices that connect computers, phones and other
electronics in the home without wires, under federal action taken
Thursday. The decision by the FCC expands the ability of systems
designed primarily for wireless networking inside a home or building.
Such devices might use the airwaves to connect several computers to a
single printer or to download CD-quality audio and video streams from
a personal computer to portable electronic devices. The FCC Thursday
increased the amount of bandwidth available to certain wireless
systems, which have the ability to shift between frequencies to avoid
interference. See
*** AOL acquires Quack.com
CHANTILLY, Va. (AP) - America Online Inc. announced Thursday its
acquisition of Quack.com, one of several companies that specializes
in telephone access to the Internet. Quack's users call a 1-800
number and use a series of voice commands to obtain information about
stocks, sports scores, and other information available on the
Internet. The service is free. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
But Bid.com, an investor in Quack, said it received $24 million in
AOL stock from its initial $1 million investment. Bid.com director of
marketing Joe Racanelli said his company owned 8% to 9% of Quack,
which would put the deal's value at roughly $265 million. See
*** Lucent spinning off 3 businesses
TRENTON, N.J. (AP) - Telecommunications giant Lucent Technologies
Inc. plans to create a new enterprise networking company, spinning
off three businesses to its shareholders as part of a special
dividend. Avaya will be created from Lucent's Enterprise Networks
Group, which sells business telephone networks, voice and data
switches for those networks, voice messaging systems such as its
popular Intuity AUDIX, and other equipment and services to
"enterprises." Those include government agencies and large and small
businesses, as opposed to the telephone companies and Internet
service providers that are Lucent's primary customers. The new
company will be based in Basking Ridge near Lucent's headquarters in
Murray Hill, Lucent said Thursday. It will begin operating as a world
leader in call centers, messaging systems and cable equipment that
links telephones and computers inside companies. See
*** NU-San Jose St. to be Webcast
LINCOLN, Neb. - Oddsmakers say that Saturday's college football game
between No. 1 Nebraska and unranked San Jose State won't be much of a
contest. But the folks at FoxSports.com are betting that their live
Internet broadcast of the NCAA Division I-A contest - the first
college or professional football game ever shown on a Web site
directly linked to a major television network - will be a hit with
fans and could eventually lead to a new source of revenue. The free
Webcast of the 12:30 p.m. ET game will include live video and audio
from the game, which will be shown on FoxSports.com and Huskers.com,
Nebraska's athletic department Web site. See
**********************************************
*** Microsoft faces another lawsuit
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - California, traditionally a gold mine for
Microsoft Corp., now looms as a potential minefield for the computer
software maker. A San Francisco judge's decision Tuesday to certify a
private antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft as a class action,
representing millions of California consumers, will put the company's
pricing policies on trial in what is probably its most lucrative
market. If successful, the suit could cost Microsoft billions of
dollars because of laws that triple the damages in antitrust cases,
said Herbert Hovenkamp, an antitrust expert who has closely followed
the legal onslaught launched against the software maker across the
country. See
***
Also: Microsoft makes donation to library, see
*** Drkoop.com lays off 1/3 of staff
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) - Online health company drkoop.com Inc. has
slashed its work force for the second time in three months, saying
the layoffs are part of a new corporate restructuring plan aimed at
cutting costs. Late Tuesday, the Austin-based company announced it
was cutting 50 positions, about one-third of its current work force.
The move came on the heels of an announcement Monday that drkoop.com
had secured $27.5 million in new financing and revamped its
management team. The company, co-founded by former U.S. Surgeon
General C. Everett Koop, has been struggling to stay in business
since going public in 1997. In April, officials announced the company
only had enough cash to survive until August. The announcement came
after the company disclosed in March that its auditors had cast doubt
on its ability to remain in business. See
*** Seagram CEO: MP3 violated rights
NEW YORK (AP) - Seagram chief executive Edgar Bronfman Jr. testified
Wednesday that he believes MP3.com purposely violated the copyrights
of record companies to build an online catalogue of 80,000 CDs.
Bronfman's testimony in a civil trial in federal court in Manhattan
was brief because Judge Jed Rakoff decided that the executive's
opinions were not relevant to deciding whether MP3.com intentionally
infringed on copyrights. Before the reluctant witness finished his
testimony, he said he doubted MP3.com "accidentally bought 80,000
CDs" to load into a service that allows customers to access favorite
music from anywhere once they prove they own the CD. See
*** Sony launches handheld computer
NEW YORK (AP) - Sony Corp. announced plans Wednesday to launch next
month a handheld computer that uses Palm Inc.'s operating system and
offers some entertainment features. The choice of operating system
represents a win for market leader Palm in its struggle to keep
devices running Microsoft's Pocket PC operating system from breaking
into the market. The CLIE, an acronym for "Communication Link
Information Entertainment" (pronounced CLEE-ay), will cost about
$400, about the same as Palm's high-end Palm Vx. Sony aimed to widen
the market for Palm handhelds beyond mobile professionals and
tech-friendly "early adopters" by including multimedia and
entertainment features, said Palm executive Mark Bercow. See
*** Intel files patent suit vs. Broadcom
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) _ Shares of Broadcom Corp. sank more than 5% on
Wednesday after Intel Corp. filed a patent infringement lawsuit
against the network equipment maker, claiming that Broadcom has built
its business on Intel's technology. Santa Clara, Calif.-based Intel
alleges in the suit that Broadcom, Irvine, Calif., violated five of
its patents relating to networking, chip packaging and video
compression. The company is seeking an injunction against Broadcom to
prevent further alleged infringement, as well as unspecified damages
and court costs. Broadcom spokesman Bill Blanning said that Intel did
not try to resolve any problems before filing suit. He said Broadcom
has not yet reviewed the suit. Intel spokesman Chuck Mulloy said
lawsuits are a last resort for the company and that Intel has an
obligation to protect its investment. See
*** Glitch disrupts Norwegian accounts
OSLO, Norway (AP) - A security glitch left at least 800,000 Norwegian
Internet bank accounts open to snoopers for two months until a
17-year-old boy pointed out the flaw, a published report said
Wednesday. The Sparebanken Nor bank was told about the bug on Tuesday
and immediately shut down and modified the service. The bug made it
possible for Internet bank customers to log onto their own account,
and from there move to other accounts on the same database. That
meant outsiders could see how much people earned, how much they spent
and, in many cases, what they bought. A published report said it was
also possible to check accounts for businesses, raising the risk of
rivals checking sensitive information. The report said it was not
possible to make transfers or other changes to the accounts. The
service resumed Wednesday. See
************************************************
*** Calif. allows case against Microsoft
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - A judge allowed the first class-action suit to
proceed against Microsoft Corp. on allegations that the software
giant's monopoly harmed California consumers. Dozens of similar suits
linger nationwide. In a 21-page opinion released late Tuesday, San
Francisco Superior Court Judge Stuart R. Pollak said an untold number
of California consumers could be represented in one trial to
determine whether they were forced to pay unreasonably high costs for
Microsoft products. He said denying the suit "could result in
repetitious litigation." Attorneys in the case are scheduled to meet
with Pollak on Oct. 4 to prepare for a trial. No trial date has been
set yet. The products at issue are Microsoft's Windows operating
system, its MS-DOS operating system, Word programs and Excel software
purchased on or after May 18, 1994. See
*** Napster's trial date is set
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - A federal appeals court said Tuesday it would
hear oral arguments in the Napster Inc. case the first week of
October. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said a three-judge
panel will would hear the case sometime between Oct. 2-6 in San
Francisco. The court, which in the past year has issued rulings in
favor of technology despite concerns of copyright infringement,
national security and Internet monopolies, is hearing the recording
industry's case against the Internet site that acts as a gateway for
millions of online surfers to exchange and record copyrighted music.
The recording industry wants Napster shut down, alleging it is
contributing to widespread copyright infringement. Napster maintains
it is just providing a service for users to share music and not all
of the music is copyright protected. See
*** Micron sues Rambus over patents
BOISE, Idaho (AP) - A Micron Technology Inc. executive said a federal
lawsuit filed against competitor Rambus Inc. is an attempt to head
off potential Rambus claims that Micron has infringed on some of its
patents. Kipp Bedard, Boise-based Micron's vice president of
corporate affairs, said Tuesday that the Mountain View, Calif.-based
Rambus recently filed patent-infringement allegations against other
semiconductor manufacturers, including Hitachi Ltd. A complaint was
filed as a preemptive strike late Monday in U.S. District Court in
Delaware, where Micron is incorporated, the company said. It asserts
violations of federal antitrust laws, as well as invalidity,
non-infringement and non-enforceability of eight Rambus patents. See
*** Destructive Palm program discovered
WASHINGTON (AP) - Antivirus experts are warning consumers about the
first intentionally destructive program for Palm handheld computers:
it appears as an update to a Palm program, but instead deletes all
programs on the device. The author of the program says he didn't mean
for it to go public and that he's helping antivirus companies detect
it. The program, a type known as a Trojan horse, has been dubbed
"Palm.Liberty.A." Liberty is a popular Palm program, made by Gambit
Studios, that lets users download and play games made for the
Nintendo GameBoy handheld computer. Palm.Liberty.A is being
distributed under the name "Crack 1.1" through Internet Relay Chat, a
network of chatting channels. When run, it deletes all the programs
on the user's Palm device, though it leaves the address book data,
calendar and other databases intact. See
*** Dell teams up to offer VC
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) - Dell Computer Corp. announced a partnership
Tuesday with two venture capital firms to help startups get access to
computers, Web hosting and other services. Dell, which runs its own
venture capital company, has partnered with The CIT Group and Intel
Corp. to help startups once they have money in the bank. VC Direct
will offer quick leasing options for newly funded companies that want
to get set up with hardware and services without spending a lot of
cash, Dell said. Perks include access to Web hosting, consulting
services that focus on common problems facing young firms and special
prices on Dell hardware and services. See
*** SEC targets Web pyramid scheme
WASHINGTON (AP) - Federal regulators on Tuesday filed suit to stop an
allegedly fraudulent pyramid scheme they said was masquerading as an
Internet investment club and had bilked some 2,000 investors of $5.6
million. For a $1,495 membership fee plus $149 a month, Le Club Prive
offered investors a chance to earn commissions by recruiting new
members to the club, the Securities and Exchange Commission said in
its civil suit filed in federal court in Dallas. Investors were to
receive $500 for each new member they recruited. Members were
promised access to the club's Internet "backroom," containing
investment recommendations, the SEC said. In fact, the SEC alleged,
the investment club is a sham and investors' money has been diverted
by the people running the scheme for their own use. See
*******************************************************
*** VoiceStream to buy Powertel
WEST POINT, Ga. (AP) - VoiceStream Wireless Corp., the nation's
eighth largest mobile telephone carrier, has agreed to buy cell phone
company Powertel Inc. for roughly $5.8 billion. The deal announced
Sunday is subject to the completion of the previously announced $46
billion merger between VoiceStream and Germany's Deutsche Telekom AG,
the largest telecommunication company in Europe. VoiceStream, based
in Bellevue, Wash., has been seeking to expand its base of U.S.
wireless customers. See
*** Drkoop.com gets $28 mln in financing
AUSTIN (AP) - Struggling Web site Drkoop.com Inc. has secured $27.5
million in new financing - enough to last for 18 months, the company
said. The Austin-based company announced last week that it was
negotiating the funding with a group of investors including Prime
Ventures, JF Shea Ventures, Cramer-Rosenthal-McGlynn Inc., and RMC
Capital. The investors have provided $6 million so far. They also
brought a new management team to the company, with Richard M.
Rosenblatt of Prime Ventures replacing Donald Hackett as drkoop.com's
chief executive. Former U.S. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop, one of
the founders of the company, remained as chairman. See
*** Microsoft, Amazon team for e-books
SEATTLE (AP) - Microsoft Corp., in an effort to expand the reach of
its Reader software for electronic books, has teamed up with online
retailer Amazon.com to create an online e-bookstore. In an alliance
announced at a publishing conference in San Francisco, Microsoft will
create a customized version of its Reader software for Amazon.com,
which will allow customers to buy and download entire books from the
retailer's Web site. The Reader software, available for free on
Microsoft's Web site, makes it easier to read text on a computer by
"splitting" the individual pixels that make up the screen, making
individual letters less blocky and easier on the eyes. The two did
not announce whether the alliance included any financial terms. See
*** Chipmakers Applied Micro, MMC merge
SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) - A merger of chipmakers Applied Micro Circuits
Corp. and MMC Networks will intensify the high-stakes competition
between parts suppliers for the booming optical networking market.
San Diego-based AMCC announced Sunday it will acquire Sunnyvale-based
MMC Networks for about $4.5 billion in stock, issuing 0.619 of a
share for each share of MMC Networks. The merger marks the
second-largest deal in the semiconductor industry and is part of a
growing trend of consolidation in the chips industry. AMCC, a leading
supplier of chips used to make fiber optic communications equipment,
said the merger will help fill a gap in its product line. MMC
Networks manufactures network processors and other communications
management technology. Both are suppliers for Internet infrastructure
companies such as Cisco Systems and Nortel Networks. See
***
Also: Intel recalls its fastest chip, see
*** Internet Wire ups safety after hoax
NEW YORK (AP) - Internet Wire is beefing up its security procedures
after a bogus press release sent through its service last week sent
the shares of a network equipment manufacturer plunging. The hoax was
pulled off Friday by someone who sent out a fake press release with
bad news about Emulex, a successful California company that makes
fiber optics equipment. The fake release said the company's CEO had
quit and that it was restating its most recent quarterly earnings
from a profit to a loss. Emulex's stock plunged as much as 62% in the
minutes after financial news services ran stories based on the fake
release, but the stock recovered most of its ground after the company
denied the reports. The FBI is investigating the matter. See
*** MP3.com executive defends service
NEW YORK (AP) - The chief executive of MP3.com portrayed himself and
his company as a friend of the music companies as a trial began
Monday to decide if the company willfully violated the copyrights of
record companies. Michael Robertson said his San Diego-based music
storage venture is a rare Internet music company, forcing people to
pay musicians for their work. U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff, who is
hearing the civil case without a jury, earlier this year ruled that
MP3.com infringed the copyrights of the nation's major record
companies by offering music online without permission. Now, he must
determine whether the company purposefully infringed the copyrights,
which increase potential damages, to be determined at a separate
trial later this year. See
***************************************************
*** Oracle fires shot against ex-allies
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Computer software giant Oracle Corp. is aiming
to make another killing with its latest Internet offering, and the
competitors in the company's cross hairs are as much of the story as
the new product itself. After a week of hyping the product to the
media and Wall Street, Oracle on Monday will unveil a new Internet
service designed to help companies market products, track sales
trends and handle customer inquiries. Redwood Shores-based Oracle,
the world's second-biggest software company, plans to give away the
service for the rest of the year before charging customers who get
hooked on the product. See
*** Clinton opens teacher matching site
WASHINGTON (AP) - Trying to use the Internet to fill a teacher
shortage, President Clinton launched a one-stop clearinghouse
Saturday to help schools find qualified teachers. "By logging on to
www.recruitingteachers.org, school districts can find qualified
teachers, and teachers can find out where the jobs are," Clinton said
in his weekly radio address, recorded before his departure for Africa
on Friday. Clinton said the Web site "will help us alleviate the
national teacher shortage and to bring down class size." Clinton said
a record 53 million students will fill classrooms Monday morning when
bells signal the start of classes in schools around the country. He
said over the next decade, America will need to hire 2.2 million new
teachers, both to handle rising enrollment and to replace those
teachers set to retire. See
*** Groups support Napster file-sharing
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Copyright law professors and a physicians'
association are supporting Napster Inc.'s appeal of a preliminary
injunction that would have virtually shut down the company's popular
music-sharing service. In a friend-of-the-court brief filed Friday
with the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, 18 professors from
various law schools argued that a federal judge erred in granting the
injunction to the recording industry. The professors said it would be
impractical for any file-sharing service to operate within the
constraints imposed by U.S. District Judge Marilyn Hall Patel. She
granted the injunction July 26 at the request of the Recording
Industry Association of America, which sued Napster in December for
copyright infringement. See
*** U.S. online users shun '.us' names
NEW YORK (AP) - Americans, it seems, prefer any other identity but
their own. Internet addresses tagged with a country code - such as
"name.fr" for France - may be a source of national pride around the
world, but ".us" is this country's forgotten stepchild. And that
worries the U.S. government, which last week began seeking
suggestions on making ".us" more desirable to help relieve the
crowded field of dot-com addresses. Good luck. Changing habits won't
be easy in a country used to ending addresses with ".com," ".net" and
".org," which are supposed to be global identifiers but are dominated
by U.S. sites. See
*** Semiconductor cos. merge
SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) - Applied Micro Circuits Corporation announced
it will buy MMC Networks for about $4.5 billion in stock, making it
the second-largest deal in semiconductor history. The largest merger
came in June when Texas Instruments, a Dallas-based semiconductor
giant, acquired Burr-Brown Corp, a manufacturer of analog and mixed
signal integrated circuits, for $7.6 billion. San Diego-based AMCC
announced it would issue 0.619 shares of its common stock for each
common share of MMC stock as part of the transaction. MMC networks, a
semiconductor company based in Sunnyvale, manufactures computer
network processors and communications management technology. The
merger is expected to close by the end of the fourth quarter. ###
*** Land time forgot in Silicon Valley
SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) - Driving into Coyote Valley, there's a sense
of arriving in the land time forgot - a pocket of this high-tech
region still clinging to its agricultural roots. Strip malls,
traffic-clogged freeways and steel-and-glass monuments to the
Internet age have been encroaching for years, but the quiet beauty of
the rolling hills has remained, along with the cows grazing in
pastures. Now the peaceful setting belies the battle being waged
here. With companies and residents confined to increasingly tight
quarters just to the north in Silicon Valley, the wall between the
pastoral past and the electronic future is about to come crashing
down in Coyote Valley. See
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*** Verizon Wireless files for IPO
NEW YORK (AP) - Verizon Wireless Inc. officially filed with federal regulators on Thursday
for the planned initial public offering stock in the nation's biggest mobile phone and
paging company. The registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission,
mostly a formality, revealed little new information. The plan was first disclosed in April
when Verizon was created through a merger of wireless operations from Bell Atlantic,
AirTouch and PrimeCo. GTE's wireless assets joined the mix in June after that company's
acquisition by Bell Atlantic, which subsequently renamed itself Verizon Communications.
It's not clear yet how much money the IPO will raise for Verizon Wireless, which would use
the funds to expand and upgrade its wireless network for advanced services. See
*** APBNews plans asset auction
NEW YORK (AP) - Crime news Web site APBNews.com said Thursday it had been deserted by a
prospective buyer, leaving its assets to be
auctioned by a bankruptcy court. SafetyTips.com, a Web site
specializing in safety consulting and training, had agreed to buy New
York-based APBNews for $950,000, but withdrew from the agreement on
Wednesday. A spokeswoman for SafetyTips said the company had decided
to let the assets go to auction upon further examination of APBNews.
She would not comment further as the case is before the U.S.
Bankruptcy Court. Spokesman Joe Krakoviak said APBNews believed
Safetytips' withdrawal was a violation of their contract. Some of the
APBNews' most valuable assets are its distribution agreements with
America Online Inc., Yahoo! Inc. and MSNBC.com. If it fails to
publish, those agreements could be voided, Krakoviak said. See
*** E-mail program proves flawed
NEW YORK (AP) - E-mails that have been scrambled for confidentiality
with a widely used program may not be secure at all, software company
Network Associates Inc. said Thursday. The company confirmed that
e-mails encrypted using its PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) software may be
vulnerable to a sophisticated attacker. A PGP spokesman said a fix
for the problem would soon be posted on the PGP Web site and
customers would be informed. PGP is used by 7 million people
worldwide, according to Wallach. Some businesses use it to send
confidential documents. To communicate privately, a sender uses a
number called the "public key," given by the recipient, to encode the
message. The flaw lies in an attacker's ability to tamper with the
key, which is often stored on public servers. An e-mail created using
a tampered key can be read by the attacker. See
*** Justice Dept seeks 'Carnivore' review
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Justice Department formally asked outside
technical experts Thursday to review whether the FBI's "Carnivore"
e-mail surveillance system has adequate protections against abuse.
The department posted a 63-page description of the technical review
on its website for bids by outside contractors. It hopes a major
university will undertake and complete the task this fall. The
technical review, to be followed by public comment and an internal
Justice Department review, is designed to present Attorney General
Janet Reno with recommendations by Dec. 8 on how to respond to
criticism of the system from Congress and privacy advocates. See
*** Group: Web agency tracks users
WASHINGTON (AP) - TRUSTe, a privacy advocate organization that runs a
privacy seal-of-approval program for retail Web sites and shows
companies how to write effective privacy policies, itself has tracked
users with means not mentioned in its own privacy policy, a security
group says. Interhack Corp., a Columbus, Ohio, security consulting
firm that has found other privacy breaches in the past, noticed that
TRUSTe's Web site contained "cookies," small text files used for
online tracking and profiling, as well as invisible images and other
tools aimed at identifying users' online habits. The tracking code
was removed Thursday afternoon, just after a reporter contacted
TRUSTe to inquire about the software. See
*** Internet swapping spreads to hobbies
PELION, S.C. (AP) - For all the talk of copyright infringement on the
Internet, the people using Napster and other such services to swap
songs have hardly made a dent in the music industry's sales. Not so
with the people who trade needlepoint patterns online. They may be
bringing a business to its knees. For years, needlepoint enthusiasts
have photocopied and swapped copyrighted patterns. Then along came
the Internet, which allowed stitchers anywhere to share designs with
each other. Hobbyists save only a few dollars - about $5 for an $80
project - but designers are losing big. See
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*** Clinton won't bar NTT-Verio deal
WASHINGTON (AP) - President Clinton has decided not to block the
pending acquisition of a U.S. Internet service provider by a major
Japanese corporation, despite national security concerns raised by
the FBI, the White House said Wednesday. The FBI had registered
concerns with the Treasury Department about Tokyo-based Nippon
Telegraph and Telephone Corp.'s planned purchase of Verio Inc. of
Englewood, Colo. NTT has offered $5.5 billion for Verio, which links
to the Web more than 20% of the companies on Standard & Poor's
500-stock index. See
*** Sprint links cell phones, e-mail
NEW YORK (AP) - Sprint PCS plans to offer business users a more
robust wireless link to corporate networks, enabling them to connect
cell phones, laptops and handheld computers to e-mail and key
applications such as Lotus Notes. The new business service announced
Wednesday, scheduled for nationwide launch next month, includes
faster download speeds when an online connection is made directly
with the Web browser on a mobile phone or if the handset is used as a
wireless modem. While wireless access to the Internet via mobile
phones is becoming more popular, one major gripe among business users
is that they need to access e-mail from public service providers such
as Yahoo! or AOL rather than their primary work account. See
http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2569134055-fcd
*** Reno delays Carnivore study pick
WASHINGTON (AP) - Attorney General Janet Reno has postponed until
Sept. 15 her selection of a university to analyze the FBI's
"Carnivore" e-mail surveillance system to give the many schools that
have volunteered an equal shot at the work. Reno told her weekly news
conference Wednesday that the department would post on its website at
5 p.m. Thursday "a statement of work and specific expectations for
the review." She launched the review after members of Congress and
civil liberties groups objected to the computerized system. The
Carnivore system has software that scans and captures "packets," the
standard unit of Internet traffic, as they travel through an internet
service provider's network. The FBI installs a Carnivore unit at a
provider's network station and configures it to capture only e-mail
to or from someone under investigation. See
*** Gateway aims to be computer trainer
NEW YORK (AP) - Gateway Inc. is admitting publicly what most computer
makers generally try to sweep under the rug: using a computer can be
pretty darned complicated. On Thursday, it is launching an
advertising campaign to drive home that point. And it has begun
offering free clinics for PC users. Chief executive Jeff Weitzen says
Gateway aims to be the biggest non-vocational computer trainer in the
country by year's end. Weitzen says he wants to help people take
advantage of all the capabilities of computers - and if PC sales get
a boost he won't complain. Starting this month, Gateway's own stores
and its kiosks in OfficeMax stores began providing free "clinics" on
PC and Internet basics as well as more advanced topics such as
digital photography and music. See
*** HP offers free computer fix
SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) - Hewlett-Packard Co. is offering a free fix
for a possible computer defect that has already cost another computer
maker more than $2 billion in a court settlement. Hewlett-Packard is
one of four computer makers facing class-action lawsuits over the
alleged defect in floppy-disk controllers, which could corrupt or
destroy data stored by millions of computer users. The lawsuits
allege the companies knowingly sold PCs with the faulty component. HP
did not admit any liability but said Wednesday it would offer a free
software "patch" that can be downloaded from a company Web site and
used to fix the problem. HP, along with Compaq Computer Corp.,
Packard Bell NEC Electronics Inc. and eMachines Inc., were sued
separately last fall within days of a $2.1 billion settlement in a
similar case against Toshiba American Information Systems Inc. See
*** NFL to sponsor Internet fan voting
NEW YORK (AP) - Football fans will be able to vote through the
Internet on an official NFL weekly award established Wednesday by the
league. The NFL.com All-Heart Player of the Week will honor a player
whose performance goes beyond headlines and stats for each week. The
award, part of the NFL's Cholesterol Screen Team project, will be
used to enhance awareness of the dangers of heart disease. Beginning
Sept. 5, fans can vote for one of five players selected by a league
panel by logging on to NFL.com. The player with the most votes when
balloting concludes on Thursdays wins the award. Hundreds of free
cholesterol screenings will be conducted in that player's community
in recognition of him winning. See
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*** Compaq to develop supercomputer
HOUSTON (AP) - The U.S. Department of Energy announced Tuesday it has
selected Compaq Computer Corp. to develop the world's fastest
supercomputer for its Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico.
The department's National Nuclear Security Administration will use
the $200 million computer in a program to study how nuclear weapons
age, without resorting to nuclear tests. The computer, called
Advanced Strategic Computing Initiative Q, will have more than 11,968
processors, allowing it to perform more than 30 trillion operations
per second. That is about 2 times as powerful as today's fastest
supercomputer, ASCI White, which was built by IBM for the Energy
Department. ASCI Q will be the size of five basketball courts, or
more than 21,000 square feet. See
*** Forbes tries embedded Web links
NEW YORK (AP) - After years of chronicling the derring-do of
entrepreneurs, Forbes magazine is taking a little gamble of its own
this week. It's partnering with a technology startup to test a novel
way of bridging print media with the Internet. Forbes is mailing out
free handheld digital readers to all 810,000 of its subscribers to
see if they'll take to the idea of jumping around the Net by scanning
little bar codes in ads and stories. No typing required here. The
bars are embedded with specific Web addresses. It's the first major
rollout of a technology from a Dallas-based company called Digital
Convergence, which also has deals in place to use the system this
fall in several newspapers, the Kaplan test-preparation courses, and
Wired magazine. See
*** Napster site among Web's top 50
NEW YORK (AP) - In the midst of its legal turmoil last month, Napster
Inc. broke into the top 50 most-visited Web sites as measured by
Media Metrix Inc. The embattled music file-swapping company's site
had 5.4 million visitors in July, making it the 47th most-visited
site. San Mateo, Calif.-based Napster has been sued by the recording
industry for allegedly facilitating the exchange of copyrighted
music. A San Francisco federal court granted an injunction to shut
the service down, but the order was stayed on appeal. See
*** Dr. Koop Web site gets more funds
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) - The struggling health Web site whose founders
included former U.S. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop has lined up $20
million in new financing and has hired a new management team. The
financing is from a group of investors including Prime Ventures, JF
Shea Ventures, Cramer-Rosenthal-McGlynn, Inc., and RMC Capital,
according to a statement Tuesday from the drkoop.com site. It said
the new management team and its backers have provided $3.5 million of
the $20 million in new financing so far. See
*** AltaVista U.K. halts fixed-rate offer
LONDON (AP) - In an embarrassing setback, AltaVista Co. now
acknowledges it cannot offer the unmetered Internet access it
promised to customers in the United Kingdom. The company's British
subsidiary sought Tuesday to deflect criticism for putting the access
on hold, despite having hyped the service and signed up 270,000
subscribers. The Palo Alto, California-based company, best known for
its Internet search engines, blamed its retreat on the high rates it
has to pay for domestic phone lines. AltaVista's unmetered service
depended on the availability of flat rate circuits from British
Telecommunications PLC, Britain's main fixed-line phone company. See
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*** China OKs investment by Motorola
BEIJING (AP) - A local Chinese government on Monday approved a $1.9
billion investment by Motorola Inc., making the Schaumburg, Ill.,
company China's largest foreign investor. Motorola will use the money
to expand its semiconductor and telecommunications plants in the port
city of Tianjin, the company and Chinese state media said. Tianjin's
government approved the investment, first announced last month. The
expanded semiconductor plant will be the largest of its kind in the
world and the most advanced in China, Motorola said. See
*** MP3.com, Sony settle copyright
LOS ANGELES (AP) - The online music storage company MP3.com reached a settlement with Sony
Music Entertainment, the fourth such settlement
with plaintiffs in a lawsuit claiming its business violates copyright
law. Under terms announced late Monday, San Diego-based MP3.com will
pay an undisclosed amount to Sony for past violations and enter into
a non-exclusive North American license for use of Sony's songs in the
company's MyMP3.com listening service. MP3.com previously reached
settlements with Warner Music Group, BMG and EMI. See
*** CarOrder.com lays off 100
AUSTIN (AP) - Yet another Internet company has stalled out.
CarOrder.com, the retailer which bought cars from dealers and sold
them online, last week stopped taking orders for cars and pulled the
plug on its Web site. The company also laid off 100 employees.
CarOrder is the latest e-commerce company to either fold or suffer
massive layoffs in the struggle to stay on track. CarOrder.com
suffered from intense competition and a spotty consumer service
record. It also had been frustrated by state regulators in Texas, who
cited anti-brokering laws to block it and other Internet car dealers
from selling cars to residents. Since May, the company has shrunk its
work force to 40 from 250 workers. See
*** Intel has high hopes for Pentium 4
SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) - Intel Corp.'s new, turbocharged Pentium 4
processor aims to make computers into hotrods capable of ripping
through even the most demanding applications. Problem is, analysts
say, there aren't many challenges for the microprocessor's extra
horsepower yet - especially considering the expected sticker shock.
At the Intel Developer's Forum that begins Tuesday, the Santa Clara,
Calif.-based company will be touting the Pentium 4, trying to
encourage software developers to write programs that exploit its
ability to speed up graphics, speech and streaming video. See
*** Buyer found for crime Web site
NEW YORK (AP) - APBNews may have found a way out of bankruptcy. The
struggling crime news Web site has agreed to be purchased for
$950,000 by SafetyTips.com, a site specializing in providing safety
consulting and training. APBNews burned through $27 million in cash
from investors and sought protection under Chapter 11 of the federal
bankruptcy laws in early July, claiming $8 million in debt. APBNews
fired most of its staff of 140 and has been operating on a shoestring
budget since then. The sale will be reviewed at a Sept. 1 hearing in
U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York. APBNews could still be sold to a
higher bidder if one emerges. SafetyTips is backed by 2 online
investors, Apollo Advisors and Rare Medium. See
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*** Privacy to headline tech summit
DENVER (AP) - Microsoft has one. So do American Express, AT&T,
Citigroup and Prudential Insurance. Now some in Congress say the
federal government should, too. With consumers increasingly worried
about how companies use their personal information to track them on
the Internet, many large corporations are hiring privacy officers
with broad authority to protect such data. Privacy is a key topic on
the agenda of industry and government leaders attending the sixth
annual technology policy summit sponsored by the nonprofit Progress
and Freedom Foundation, which researches the effect of the digital
revolution on public policy. Privacy problems have occurred at
several dot-com companies, including Toysmart.com and DoubleClick,
and the FBI has been criticized for its e-mail surveillance system.
See
*** More low-income households online
SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) - Slowly, the digital divide is narrowing.
Fifty percent more low-income households have logged onto the
Internet, compared to a year ago, according to a study by Media
Metrix, Inc., a market research firm in New York. In June, the number
of new Internet surfers in households earning less than $25,000 a
year jumped to 7.5 million, up from 5 million the same period last
year. The increase makes low-income households the fastest growing
segment in the online population, the study reported. See
*** Napster's effect on sales unclear
NEW YORK (AP) - The Recording Industry Association of America, and
musicians like Metallica, went after Napster in court for a simple
reason: It let fans get for free the material musicians make their
living producing and selling. That was the basis of the U.S. District
Court judge's decision last month ordering the service to stop.
Napster is still alive - barely - after an 11th-hour stay. The war
was waged, however, before anyone could determine definitively
whether Napster depressed or stimulated music sales. Rolling Stone
recently asked 5,000 readers whether they have bought fewer CDs now
that music is available for free online, and only 8% said yes. Most
of the readers, 54%, said their buying habits haven't changed and 36%
said they are buying more. See
***
Also: Naspter says judge erred, see
*** National Geographic teams with site
NEW YORK (AP) - Take a Web site launched 6 months ago by a
31-year-old entrepreneur. Combine with a respected, 112-year-old
educational and research institution. What you get is the first major
dot-com deal by the National Geographic Society. National Geographic
is expected to announce Monday that it is taking a 30% stake in
iExplore, an online travel agent that offers trips to more than 150
countries through an array of tour operators. Neither organization
would disclose the financial terms involved, but National Geographic
president John Fahey said the investment included licensing
arrangements as well as cash. See
*** Logitech pushes new computer mouse
FREMONT, Calif. (AP) - Run this computer mouse over an image of a
tennis racket and it gives a series of small twitches, as if hitting
the racket's hard plastic cords. Guide the iFeel MouseMan mouse over
a picture of an ice cube, and it seems to glide more smoothly across
the middle. A novelty for geeks or a milestone in the evolution of
computing? Logitech, the world's largest maker of computer mice, is
betting this new mouse that "feels" will change the way we interact
with PCs. The iFeel MouseMan, for sale this fall, looks like most
other mice but has a motor inside that relates a sense of texture to
the hand guiding it. See
*** Web surfers mixed on privacy worry
NEW YORK (AP) - An overwhelming majority of Americans on the Internet
woDivers find no sign of life on sub rry about businesses and
strangers getting personal data about them, yet few take basic
precautions while they surf, according to a study released Sunday. In
fact, a majority of Internet users are willing to give Web sites the
same information they claim they want to keep private, the survey by
the Pew Internet and American Life Project found. The contradictions
suggest a lack of understanding about how the Internet works:
Americans want control over information about themselves, but they do
not know enough about computers to trust that they are in control.
See
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*** Movie industry backed in DVD trial
NEW YORK (AP) - A federal judge backed the movie industry Thursday in
its battle to stop DVDs from being copied on computers. The ruling came in a case brought
by 8 Hollywood movie studios that sued to stop a Web site from providing or linking
visitors to software that descrambles the code meant to prevent DVDs from being copied.
U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan ruled that the posting of the code violates federal
copyright law. The ruling was a loss for Eric Corley, who had already been forced by a
preliminary injunction to remove the DeCSS code from his 2600.com Web site. The software,
developed by hackers, helps computer users copy full-length movies from digital versatile
discs onto their hard drives or other media. See
*** Court reviewing Napster
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - The federal appeals panel reviewing the recording industry's
copyright infringement suit against Napster Inc. has set important precedents defining
gray areas of technology law. In its rulings, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has
generally given support for new technology despite concerns of copyright infringement,
national security and Internet-access monopolies. But experts said it is unclear whether
the circuit's technology precedents will help or hurt the recording industry's case, and
they point out that the U.S. Supreme Court this year reversed 9 of the circuit's 10 cases
it reviewed. Napster provides a wildly popular software that allows users to share music
files, which they can download from each other's computers. See
*** Healtheon/WebMD lays off workers
NEW YORK (AP) - Healtheon/WebMD Corp. this week has started laying
off some its workers, becoming the latest high-flying Internet company to resort to pink
slips to cut expenses. The Atlanta-based company, which is trying to connect doctors,
patients, insurers and labs online, refused to disclose how many workers were being laid
off. A spokesman said Thursday that this first round layoffs is part of an effort to slice
$75 million from the company's projected $1 billion in 2000 expenses. Steve Grant,
Healtheon/WebMD's chief operating officer, said there will more waves of layoffs. He also
said the cutbacks were part of the company's strategy to turn a profit by the end of 2001.
See
*** Houston Web users sue DSL co's
HOUSTON (AP) - A group of Houston-area Internet users has filed a lawsuit against SBC
Communications, Inc., and its subsidiaries, including Southwestern Bell, alleging the
telecommunications giant intentionally is slowing the speeds at which customers can
connect to the Internet. At issue are high-speed digital subscriber lines, or DSLs, which
allow Internet users to connect much faster than standard modem lines. DSLs also enable
ordinary telephone lines to handle regular phone calls and high-speed data at the same
time. The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in Corpus Christi, Texas, alleges SBC intentionally
lowered the access rate to e-mail and newsgroups by two-thirds of the promised rate
through its DSL service without notifying customers or giving any discount for the
inferior service. See
*** Cablevision drops ExciteAtHome suit
REDWOOD CITY, Calif. (AP) - Cablevision Systems Corp. dropped its
lawsuit against ExciteAtHome Corp., the largest provider of high-speed Internet service,
which it accused of making substantial ownership changes without approval. Terms of the
settlement were not disclosed Thursday. Cablevision was one of 3 cable-television
companies that owned stakes in Redwood City, Calif.-based Excite, in investments designed
to deliver Web content to their networks. Comcast Corp. and Cox Communications Inc. in
March sold their stakes to AT&T Corp., which is seeking more control of Excite's
direction.
Cablevision sued, arguing in Delaware Chancery Court it should have been included in the
buyout agreement. See
*** Judge passes on Toysmart conditions
BOSTON (AP) - A federal bankruptcy judge declined Thursday to place advance conditions on
the proposed sale of the customer list of bankrupt Internet toy retailer Toysmart.com.
U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Carol Kenner said she wasn't going to set any conditions because
there was no buyer in sight for the list. She left the door open to critics of the
proposed sale, saying they would be able to register their objections when a buyer
appears. The proposed sale of the Waltham-based company's customer list, which contains
names and other information on about 250,000 people, has sparked criticism both from the
FTC and nearly every state attorney general. The problem is that the Web site had promised
people that the information they provided would "never be shared with anybody."
But the list is now being considered an asset the ailing company had hoped to sell to pay
off its debts. See
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*** Starbucks takes $20 mln hit
SEATTLE (AP) - Coffee retailing giant Starbucks Corp. said Wednesday it has lowered its
earnings expectations because of a $20.6 million charge from its investment in living.com,
which is filing for bankruptcy protection. But Amazon.com, which owned 18% of living.com
and had expected to receive $145 million over 5 years in a Web-hosting deal with the
home-furnishings retailer, said it will take no similar charge and should not see its
earnings seriously affected. Living.com, based in Austin, Texas, stopped taking orders
Tuesday and laid off its 275 employees in Austin and North Carolina. The company
said it would file for protection from creditors under Chapter 7 of the U.S. Bankruptcy
Code, after failing to find a source for new capital. See
*** Compaq launches 'Internet appliance'
NEW YORK (AP) - Compaq Computer Corp. is the first major computer
maker to launch an "Internet appliance," a stripped-down computer that some
analysts say will replace PCs as the most common way to get online. The iPaq Home Internet
Appliance, about the size of a small VCR, comes with a built-in screen and a wireless
keyboard. It runs a Microsoft operating system and can access the Web only through
Microsoft Corp.'s Internet service provider, MSN. At a press conference in New York on
Tuesday, Compaq also planned to present a small portable player for digital music in the
MP3 format and a "residential gateway," a device that is intended to act as the
electronic hub of a home, connecting computers and other devices to the Internet and one
another. See
*** FBI to release e-mail documents
WASHINGTON (AP) - The FBI has 3,000 pages of documents about its "Carnivore"
e-mail surveillance system and expects to begin releasing some to the public in about 45
days, the Justice Department said Wednesday. Additional releases should follow every 45
days until all the pages have been evaluated for release, the government said. But it gave
no commitment to either process or release any specific number of pages in each interval.
Responding to the lawsuit, the Justice Department and the FBI told U.S. District Judge
James Robertson in a written status report that the government has begun reviewing the
pages to see if any should be withheld as classified information. The Carnivore system has
software that scans and captures "packets," the standard unit of Internet
traffic, as they travel through an internet service provider's network. See
*** Nortel to acquire Sonoma Systems
TORONTO (AP) - Nortel Networks Corp. is buying Internet access
equipment maker Sonoma Systems for up to $540 million in stock. The
deal announced Tuesday brings together Nortel, a global Internet and
communications leader specializing in high-performance fiber-optics,
with Sonoma Systems, maker of access devices that provide high-speed
video, data and voice communications simultaneously over a single
connection. New services made available by Sonoma Systems' access
devices include high-speed local Internet access, video services and
Internet telephone. See
*** Linux system called great equalizer
SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) - Who would have thought an operating system whose mascot is a cute,
smiling penguin could engender such fear? One after another, companies attending the
LinuxWorld Conference and Expo here are portraying the so-called open-source movement as
the great equalizer, capable of reducing giants to dwarfs and making paupers patrons as
new electronic applications begin to flow freely and fast. Companies developing everything
from wristwatches to electronic organizers to supercomputers are flocking to Linux because
the platform allows anyone to tinker with the operating system to fit individual needs,
while freeing them from paying costly licensing fees. That helps keep down the price and
can speed product development, allowing upstarts to take on entrenched competitors. See
*** NTT-Verio deal gets U.S. panel's OK
TOKYO (AP) - A Treasury Department panel has found NTT Communications Corp.'s $5.5 billion
purchase of Internet service provider Verio Inc. poses no security risk, NTT said Tuesday.
U.S. government agencies have expressed concern that foreign ownership of a U.S.
communications company could interfere with the government's ability to monitor criminals
and terrorists. The U.S. Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, a Treasury
Department panel that reviews acquisitions of American companies by foreign entities, has
been investigating the proposed purchase of the Englewood, Colo.-based company. See
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*** Court throws out wiretapping rules
WASHINGTON (AP) - A federal appeals court dealt law enforcement
authorities a setback Tuesday in their efforts to keep criminals from using such telephone
features as conference calls and call-forwarding to thwart surveillance. The court
determined that the FCC failed to adequately take into account consumer privacy concerns
and costs imposed on the industry when the agency required surveillance capabilities added
to the telecommunications network. The decision could also have implications for the FBI's
new "Carnivore" surveillance system, which can monitor e-mails. See
*** Compaq launches 'Internet appliance'
NEW YORK (AP) - Compaq Computer Corp. is the first major computer
maker to launch an "Internet appliance," a stripped-down computer that some
analysts say will replace PCs as the most common way to get online. The iPaq Home Internet
Appliance, about the size of a small VCR, comes with a built-in screen and a wireless
keyboard. It runs a Microsoft operating system and can access the Web only through
Microsoft Corp.'s Internet service provider, MSN. At a press conference in New York on
Tuesday, Compaq also planned to present a small portable player for digital music in the
MP3 format and a "residential gateway," a device that is intended to act as the
electronic hub of a home, connecting computers and other devices to the Internet and one
another. See
*** Nortel to acquire Sonoma Systems
TORONTO (AP) - Nortel Networks Corp. is buying Internet access equipment maker Sonoma
Systems for up to $540 million in stock. The deal announced Tuesday brings together
Nortel, a global Internet and communications leader specializing in high-performance
fiber-optics, with Sonoma Systems, maker of access devices that provide high-speed video,
data and voice communications simultaneously over a single connection. New services made
available by Sonoma Systems' access devices include high-speed local Internet access,
video services and Internet telephone. See
*** NTT-Verio deal gets U.S. panel's OK
TOKYO (AP) - A Treasury Department panel has found NTT Communications Corp.'s $5.5 billion
purchase of Internet service provider Verio Inc. poses no security risk, NTT said Tuesday.
U.S. government agencies have expressed concern that foreign ownership of a U.S.
communications company could interfere with the government's ability to monitor criminals
and terrorists. The U.S. Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, a Treasury
Department panel that reviews acquisitions of American companies by foreign entities, has
been investigating the proposed purchase of the Englewood, Colo.-based company. See
*** Quick Microsoft appeal review urged
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Justice Department urged the Supreme Court on
Tuesday to quickly hear Microsoft's appeal of a ruling that would split the computer
software giant in two on grounds that delay "could irreparably harm competition in a
vital and rapidly evolving sector of the national economy." In a brief filed with the
high court, the government opposed Microsoft's request that its appeal go first to the
U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia before reaching the Supreme
Court. The court should agree to skip the intermediate panel for only the third time since
1974 because this case "has immense importance to our national economy," the
government said. U.S. District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson ruled that Microsoft had
engaged in illegal anticompetitive conduct to maintain its monopoly over the operating
systems that run personal computers. See
*** Web convention coverage mixed
LOS ANGELES (AP) - "On the Net," beamed the sign high above the
convention, marking the arrival of the Web and a new sort of political coverage. But with
one convention over and another under way, the results of the cyber-coverage are decidedly
mixed. Traffic at major news sites was down, and Web producers and observers alike are
suggesting that the hype was much bigger than the reality. Much of the Web content looks a
lot like the traditional media, with newspaper- and magazine-type stories and TV chat
shows, which work fine as long as you have enough bandwidth to make it watchable. But the
new, high-tech stuff that was supposed to make this coverage fundamentally different
hasn't fared as well. See
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*** LinuxWorld conference to open
SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) - As the new kid on the block, the Linux
computer operating system once had few friends besides the stereotypical technology geek
whose idea of fun was spending hours rewriting software code. But as that same kid begins
to gather dozens of new electronic toys around it, Linux has suddenly become part of the
in crowd - and an increasing threat to Microsoft Corp.'s Windows monopoly. As the third
annual LinuxWorld Conference & Expo opens this week here, companies such as
Hewlett-Packard are joining Dell Computer and IBM Corp. in designating Linux a
"strategic" operating system as each works to gain market share in the high-end
server computer market. See
*** Saudis block Yahoo!'s clubs site
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) - Saudi authorities have blocked access to
a site on U.S. Internet giant Yahoo! Inc.'s Web portal that contains pornographic and
other offensive material, a Saudi official said Sunday. "The decision to block the
clubs.yahoo.com site is irreversible. Matters have gone beyond what is acceptable, and
pornographic and other offensive sites are mushrooming," said Khalil al-Jadaan, an
official with the King Abdul Aziz City for Science and Technology, the kingdom's sole
Internet provider. There are more than 250 Saudi clubs on the site with more than 60,000
members. Saudi authorities only allowed Internet servers to begin operating in the kingdom
in January 1999. Previously, subscribers called long distance to providers in the U.S.,
Bahrain or Cyprus. See
*** Report debates Web CVN coverage
LOS ANGELES (AP) - The Internet is supposed to be the big new thing
for political conventions, but so far the reality has not lived up to the hype, according
to new reports. The most popular news Web sites saw a drop in users during the Republican
National Convention, and creative efforts by sites to give political information in a new
way produced mixed results, said a report Saturday by the Joan Shorenstein Center on the
Press, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard University. A companion report found that
while 35% sites covered the Republican convention and hundreds of others provided news
about the gathering, there was very little demand for the material they were producing. See
***
Also: A convention first: Online roll call, see
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*** Update: AOL takes down music search engine
NEW YORK (AP) - America Online Inc. on Thursday once again reined in a subsidiary that has
caused it embarrassment in the past, shutting down a search engine for digital music run
by Nullsoft, an AOL unit that also has created a Napster-like file-sharing program. The
search engine pointed consumers to Web pages with digital music in the popular MP3 format,
which the recording industry says has become a vehicle for piracy. The search engine was
located on the site that distributes Winamp, a popular MP3 player program for Windows
written by Nullsoft. On Thursday, the Search button was still active on the Winamp site,
but only returned this message when clicked: "Sorry. Search unavailable at this
time. Sad, sad Nullsoft." See
*** French Yahoo! battles censorship
PARIS (AP) - Internet giant Yahoo! Inc. is back in French court in a
legal battle over who should be held responsible for online racism.
At issue is Yahoo!'s auction site, where Nazi medallions, swastika-emblazoned battle flags
and other Third Reich paraphernalia can be bought and sold. The case, which resumed on
Friday, boils down to freedom of speech, which is caught in between some nations' laws and
the Internet's borderless, hard-to-regulate nature. In France, it is illegal to sell or
exhibit anything that incites racism and two Paris-based human rights groups filed suit in
April against Yahoo! for hosting the auctions of Nazi objects. But Yahoo! is based in
Santa Clara, Calif. and the U.S. Constitution protects many pages expressing racist or
extremist ideas. See
*** Update: Amazon.com teams with Toys R Us
SEATTLE (AP) - Abandoning its year-old online sales site, Toys R Us
Inc. will team up with Amazon.com to create a co-branded toy store on
the World Wide Web, paying the e-commerce giant to handle the Web
site maintenance, orders and shipping. Under the deal announced Thursday, Toys R Us'
Internet subsidiary, toysrus.com, will buy and manage inventory, which will be housed in
Amazon.com's distribution centers around the country. Amazon.com will create and maintain
the new Web site, handle transactions and fulfill orders. The co-branded toy store is
expected to start some time this fall. The baby store is to open in early 2001. Customers
going to the current Toys R Us Web sites, toysrus.com and babiesrus.com, will be
redirected to the new co-branded sites once they are built. See
*** eBay glitches frustrate users
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - The latest in a series of technical glitches in
eBay's computer systems has frustrated users and brought business on
the online auction site to a halt at least twice in recent days. A project to improve the
San Jose, Calif.-based company's systems to keep apace with the growth of the site is
being blamed for the problems. The site has been plagued with outages over the last year,
which prompted the company to invest millions of dollars to improve the system. A recent
outage came Wednesday night, when eBay was unusable for 45 minutes. On Thursday, a glitch
prevented some users from listing their sale items and others from viewing the bid history
of items for sale. EBay said it has corrected these problems. See
*** Ex-Disney exec sentenced
LOS ANGELES (AP) - A former Disney Internet executive has been
sentenced to nine months in home detention for crossing state lines
with the intention of having sex with a minor he contacted by e-mail.
Patrick J. Naughton was arrested in September 1999 after arranging to
meet an e-mail correspondent who was actually an FBI agent pretending
to be a 13-year-old girl. U.S. District Court Senior Judge Edward
Rafeedie gave Naughton a sentence of nine months home detention with
electronic monitoring, a $20,000 fine and five years probation. He
was fired after being charged last year. See
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*** Verizon, NorthPoint in DSL merger
NEW YORK (AP) - Verizon Communications, battling a major strike and disappointing profits,
announced plans Tuesday to merge its DSL
operations with NorthPoint Communications Group, an upstart provider
of the high-speed Internet service. The deal, unveiled as a potentially ruinous strike by
87,200 Verizon employees entered a third day, came as Verizon posted second-quarter
results below Wall Street forecasts and warned of more profit struggles next year. Talks
between two unions and Verizon, the company formed in June by the merger of Bell Atlantic
and GTE, snagged over job-security issues on Monday, but were expected to resume in
Washington on Tuesday. The strike affects 25 million local phone customers in 12 states
and Washington D.C. See
*** Microsoft prepares final arguments
SEATTLE (AP) - Attorneys for Microsoft Corp. were busy Tuesday
preparing their final legal response to the government's plan to break up the software
giant for antitrust violations. The response, due Wednesday in U.S. District Court in
Washington, D.C., will be Microsoft's last opportunity to make its case before Judge
Thomas Penfield Jackson enters his final ruling. Microsoft spokesman Jim Cullinan said the
company's filing will address the substance of the Justice Department's revised breakup
plan that was filed at Jackson's
request. He declined to go into further detail. Jackson abruptly closed the proceedings in
the case May 24, refusing Microsoft's repeated requests for more time. He gave the
government until last Friday to issue its revised plan, and two business days for
Microsoft to respond. A ruling could come any time after Jackson receives Microsoft's
response. See
*** Intel to license software to ITXC
SANTA CLARA, Calif. (AP) - Intel Corp. announced Tuesday a licensing deal aimed at
improving the acoustics of phone calls carried over the Internet from PCs to phones. Intel
agreed to make its Internet telephony software available to ITXC Corp., a Princeton,
N.J.-based company that provides Internet voice-communication services to Web sites. ITXC
will incorporate the Intel technology in a service that allows computer users to place
long-distance voice phone calls through their Web browsers. The companies believe their
partnership will help elevate the quality of PC-to-phone calls to nearly the same
level as phone-to-phone communication. Phoning is less expensive from
a PC because the user is charged only for the local call to his or her Internet provider
instead of for a long-distance call. However, in the past, some computer users have
complained of poor voice quality with Internet telephony. ###
*** Barnes & Noble.com to offer classes
NEW YORK (AP) - Barnes & Noble.com will start offering free online
classes this summer on its Web site, allowing people to learn about everything from
astronomy to dieting right. The New York-based retailer said Tuesday that it was building
Barnes & Noble University with notHarvard.com, which specializes in creating Web
classrooms. Barnes & Noble.com also purchased a stake in the Austin, Texas-based
company for an undisclosed sum. Just like the crowds that author lectures bring into its
traditional stores, Barnes & Noble.com is betting that its free Web-based courses will
woo people to its site
and encourage them to buy its books and other products.
NotHarvard.com is known for "eduCommerce," a term the company coined to reflect
how it uses free online education as a tool to boost sales and marketing on its clients'
sites. See
*** Gateway boosts chipmaker Transmeta
NEW YORK (AP) - Gateway Inc. has chosen upstart chipmaker Transmeta to power two new
devices for Internet access, dealing a blow to the combined rule of Intel Corp. and
Microsoft Corp. in personal computing. The San Diego, Calif.-based computer manufacturer
also said Tuesday it will use a version of the Linux operating system developed by
Transmeta in the devices, the first of which should be on sale this holiday season. A
Transmeta-Linux combination offers consumers an alternative to the combination of
computers with Intel processors running on Microsoft's Windows operating system, analysts
said. "The technology Transmeta has is very important, and it's the first one we've
seen in a long time that seriously challenges the Wintel duopoly," said Tim Bajarin,
president of consulting firm Creative Strategies Research International. See
*** Bright Station buys Boo.com software
LONDON (AP) - An Internet commerce company has bought the software developed by Boo.com,
the fashion shopping site that collapsed this month, liquidators said Tuesday. KPMG, which
was called in to sell the remains of Boo.com, did not announce the price paid by Bright
Station, formerly known as Dialog. But Press Association, the British news agency, said
the price was around 250,000 pounds, or $375,000. Dan Wagner, chief executive of
Bright Station, said the company also hoped to hire some programmers from Boo.com. Founded
by two Swedes, Kajsa Leander and Ernst Malmsten, Boo.com was said to be worth about $400
million at the peak of the Internet market frenzy last year. But a combination of high
startup costs and an inability to attract enough customers led to its demise. See
*** Ticketmaster acquires Web rival
PASADENA, Calif. (AP) - Ticketmaster Online-CitySearch has acquired smaller Internet rival
TicketWeb for $35.2 million in stock.
Ticketmaster Online-CitySearch, the industry's largest online
ticketer, said Tuesday in announcing the deal that TicketWeb will be
used to market lower-profile acts. "When Bruce Springsteen is coming
to town, everyone knows about it. When smaller groups come to town,
it's hard to find out about them," Ticketmaster Chairman Charles Conn
said. TicketWeb will enable the company to "provide access - and
tickets - to more cultural and entertainment events," he said. See
*********************************************
*** Laws for online privacy sought
WASHINGTON (AP) - In a stark reversal of policy, the Federal Trade Commission asked
Congress on Monday for new authority to regulate how companies use personal information
collected on their Web sites. The commission recommended that lawmakers pass legislation
to bolster its ability to oversee online privacy, concluding that the industry has failed
to safeguard consumer privacy through self-regulation. The FTC voted 3-2 to send its
decision to Capitol Hill and cited the findings of a new report on online privacy. The FTC
survey found that only 20% of a random sample of all Web sites with more than 39,000
visitors had implemented the four key components of widely accepted fair information
practices. Of the 100 most popular U.S. commercial sites, only 42% had adopted these
standards. See
*** IPO range set for online brokerage
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) - Commerzbank gave a price range Monday at which it expects to
sell shares in its online brokerage house when the unit goes public June 5. The sale could
generate as much as $850 million. Commerzbank, Germany's fourth largest bank, will
continue to hold 59% of Comdirect, which was launched in 1995. Since then, Comdirect has
captured 30% of Germany's online investing market with more than 500,000 clients. Internet
service provider T-Online, an offshoot of Deutsche Telekom, will take a 21% stake. The
rest of the company will be available to private investors. Commerzbank said the shares
will be priced at between 25 euros and 31 euros ($22.25-27.59) apiece. See
*** Toysmart shuts online toy store
BOSTON (AP) - Toysmart.com is shutting down its online educational
toy store after it failed to compete with bigger rivals on the Web including eToys and
Toysrus.com. Shoppers logging into the site, which Walt Disney Co. owns a majority stake,
found a notice saying it was closed for inventory, but a spokeswoman confirmed Monday that
the Waltham, Mass.-based company was ceasing operations. "The online toy market is an
incredibly competitive business that has some very strong players," said Michelle
Bergman, a spokeswoman for Go.com, which oversees the Disney's Internet businesses.
Analysts say the demise of the company came as no surprise, given the huge growth over the
last year in the online toy business. See
*** Vignette, OnDisplay to merge
AUSTIN (AP) - Vignette Corp. on Monday announced plans to merge with another software
company, OnDisplay Inc., in a stock swap executives say is worth about $1.7 billion.
Austin-based Vignette would issue 1.58 shares of its stock for each share of San Ramon,
Calif.-based OnDisplay, a 32% premium at Friday's closing prices. Shares of Vignette
closed in Nasdaq trading Friday at $43.81, down 6.3%. OnDisplay shares closed at $52.25,
down 16.5%, also on the Nasdaq. Both companies make software for electronic commerce and
Web site management. Merged, they would employ about 2,000 people in the Americas, Europe,
Asia and Australia. Vignette executives expect to close the transaction in the third
quarter, subject to approval by OnDisplay's stockholders and other customary closing
conditions. ####
*** Yahoo! Introduces direct stock plan
NEW YORK (AP) - Yahoo! Inc., hardly immune to Wall Street's abandonment of Internet
stocks, on Monday became the first major Web player to introduce a direct investment plan
for people to buy shares in the company without a broker. The program introduced by
Yahoo!, operator of the Internet's second most popular network of Web sites, is similar to
the direct investment options offered by hundreds of the nation's biggest corporations.
That list features many top names in technology and the Internet, such as Intel Corp. and
IBM Corp. But none of the early giants of the Web world had yet introduced direct
investment plans, including popular names like America Online Inc., eBay Inc. and
Amazon.com Inc. See
*** Also: Yahoo! ordered to pay damages, see
*** Corning buys rest of software co.
CORNING, N.Y. (AP) - Corning Inc., a world leader in making optical products, is buying
the remaining 66.7% stake in IntelliSense Corp. for $500 million in stock. Corning
executives said Monday the acquisition accelerates Corning's commitment to supply optical
switching products for telecommunications applications, which industry analysts predict
could become a multibillion dollar market by 2003. Corning previously purchased a
one-third stake in IntelliSense, a leader in MEMS (micro-electro-mechanical systems)
software, design and fabrication based in Wilmington, Mass. Corning
acquired its initial stake in IntelliSense in June 1999. IntelliSense
will operate as a wholly owned subsidiary of Corning. See
----------------------------------------------
*** House shortens computer reviews
WASHINGTON (AP) - Citing the rapid changes in computer technology, the House on Thursday
agreed to reduce from 180 days to 60 days the time Congress has to review administrative
changes to export controls on high-speed computers. The Clinton administration said it was
very disappointed that the House did not vote on a preferred reduction of the waiting
period to 30 days. The measure, approved 415-8 as an amendment to a $309 billion defense
authorization bill, has the strong backing of the computer industry. Rep. David Dreier,
R-Calif., said the 60-day review period answered both those with national security
concerns and those wanting less holdup in responding to market changes. Other sponsors
were less pleased with the longer
waiting period. See
*** Philippines computer students questioned
MANILA, Philippines (AP) - Philippine investigators Thursday
questioned at least seven former members of a group of computer
students linked to the "love bug" virus that crippled e-mail systems
worldwide. The former students at the Philippines' AMA Computer
College denied any ties to the virus and claimed they are no longer
active members of the group, called GRAMMERSoft, investigator Nelson Bartolome said. The
seven were among about 40 people thought to know the computer code of a second virus found
by investigators on a diskette seized from a Manila apartment where the
"ILOVEYOU" virus is thought to have been launched. Investigators attributed the
second virus to Michael Buen, who graduated May 5 from AMA college. See
*** Boo.com may have Web implications
LONDON (AP) - The collapse of British online clothing retailer
Boo.com Group Ltd. portends a shakeout among Internet companies that specialize in selling
to consumers, industry analysts said Thursday.
Boo.com is the first big European Internet business to go belly up.
The High Court appointed accountants Thursday from KPMG to liquidate its assets after the
company failed in a last-ditch effort to raise fresh funds. Boo.com's demise comes at a
time when investors already are losing some of their appetite for the once-sizzling
dot-com sector. However, analysts suggested that plenty of Internet companies should be
strong enough to survive the impending upheaval and emerge in a better position to profit.
Boo.com failed just six months after the widely publicized launch of its Web site. See
*** Feds hesitated in 'Love Bug' reaction
WASHINGTON (AP) - The government failed to promptly detect the
devastating "Love Bug" virus and warn federal agencies, resulting in
substantial damage to agencies' computer systems and files, congressional investigators
testified Thursday. The Pentagon considered calling up reservists to help contain the
virus and the Department of Health and Human Services was rendered incapable of dealing
with a potential biological disaster, the investigators found in a review of 20 agencies.
The government "was not effective at detecting this virus early on and warning
agencies about the imminent
threat. Consequently, most agencies were affected," Jack L. Brock, Jr., an expert on
government information systems at the General Accounting Office, told a Senate
subcommittee hearing. See
*** IBM recalls AC adapters for laptops
NEW YORK (AP) - International Business Machines Corp. recalled
320,000 AC adapters Thursday for it popular ThinkPad line of laptop
computers and a smaller portable computer. IBM had received nine
reports of adapters overheating, the company said. In one case, an
adapter caused a small fire, but there were no reports of injuries.
The worldwide recall affects some Thinkpads in the 310 and "i" series
and the WorkPad z50 subnotebook. All were sold more than a year ago.
Armonk, N.Y.-based IBM is offering a free replacement adapter. Tim
Blair at IBM said the faulty adapters were manufactured by Delta
Electronics in China, which is assuming the cost of the replacements.
See
********************************************
*** Microsoft may get more time
SEATTLE (AP) - Microsoft Corp. has marshaled enough of a legal
argument against a government-sought breakup that the judge in its antitrust case probably
will have to give the company at least some of the time it asked for to prepare its
defense, say experts who have been following the case. Microsoft asked Judge Thomas
Penfield Jackson Wednesday to summarily dismiss the Justice Department's plan to break the
company in two. That would be highly unlikely, experts said. In lieu of that, Microsoft
wants up to six months to prepare for a "remedies trial," a hearing in which the
company wants to present evidence that a breakup would cause irreparable harm to it, the
high-tech industry, consumers and the entire American economy. See
*** 'Love bug' virus said accidental
MANILA, Philippines (AP) - Sweating in the glare of television cameras, a Filipino
computer student said Thursday he may have accidentally released the "Love bug"
virus that crippled computer e-mail systems worldwide. The student, Onel A. de Guzman, who
had been missing for several days, would not say whether he had written the
"ILOVEYOU" virus, launched May 4. De Guzman, 23, also acknowledged that
"youthful exuberance" may have contributed to the launch of the virus that
within hours became a global e-mail menace that may end up costing governments and
corporations billions of dollars. See
*** Also: Computer virus hit Fed agencies, see
*** Yahoo offers Web page services
SANTA CLARA, Calif. (AP) - Yahoo! Inc., the world's leading Internet destination, is
expanding into the business of creating and managing other people's Web pages. Yahoo!,
like many other companies in recent months, is moving to leverage its Web expertise and
become an outsourcing company for those who want to concentrate on their business model
while leaving the technical aspects to others. It also
hopes to use those services to attract more advertisers and visitors to its own Internet
site and services. One of the new sites, for instance, will be able to connect to Yahoo!'s
auctions and classified sections with a click of a button. The Santa Clara, Calif.-based
company said in a statement it will offer three services, including a domain site where
customers can register or search for a personal or business Internet address for $35 a
year. Its Web site page service, which could cost as much as $40 a month, would sell page
design and management tools. And its servers service site would handle technical
operations of each Web page for a fee of $650 a month. See
*** Target piloting ETrade center
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - Target Stores will open an in-store ETrade
financial service center and will create a co-branded Web site with the large online
investing company. The marketing alliance between Target Corp. and ETrade Group Inc.,
announced Thursday, also will include cross-promotional arrangements. "We believe,
ultimately, the best e-commerce offerings for consumers will utilize both clicks and
mortar," said Jerry Storch, president of Target Financial Services and New
Businesses. "The ETrade/Target in-store financial service center offers our customers
broader access and convenience, empowering them with both high touch and high tech
advantages where they live and shop," said Jerry Gramaglia, ETrade's chief marketing
officer. See
*** Dell profits rise 21%
AUSTIN (AP) - First-quarter profits at Dell Computer Corp. rose 21%, topping Wall Street
expectations, as the nation's largest direct
seller of computers bounced back from the Y2K slowdown with a 33%
gain in revenues. Dell said Thursday it earned $525 million, or 19
cents per share, during the three months ended April 28. In the same
period in 1999, Dell posted a net profit of $434 million, or 16 cents
per diluted share in the same period last year. Analysts had been
expected Dell to show a per-share profit of 16 cents in the latest
quarter, according to a survey by First Call/Thomson Financial.
Dell's revenue jumped to $7.28 billion compared with $5.54 billion in
the year-ago quarter. See
*** Computer games: A family affair
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Most people who play video or computer games do so as a way to interact
with their friends and family members, and not because the games are violent or racy, an
industry survey revealed Thursday. "There are many reasons why 60% of all Americans -
or about 145 million people - play computer and video games, and the fact that they are a
social activity is chief among them," said Douglas
Lowenstein, president of the Interactive Digital Software
Association. The IDSA released its survey on the opening day of the
video and computer game's annual trade show, an event that was
overshadowed last year by what Lowenstein called "the intense glare
of the post-Columbine spotlight." See
---------------------------------------------
*** Students named in Love Bug probe
MANILA, Philippines (AP) - Two students at a Philippine computer
college wrote software programs that may have been combined to make the
"ILOVEYOU" virus that disabled e-mail systems worldwide, school officials said
Wednesday. "We are not saying they are the culprits," said Manuel Abad,
executive vice president at the AMA Computer College in Manila. But Abad characterized the
information, which has been shared with investigators, as "potential leads for
further
confirmation." Investigators have not designated either of the
students, Onel A. de Guzman and Michael Buen, as suspects. The two
were members of an underground computer group called GRAMMERSoft, which provided
programming to small- and medium-size businesses and also wrote and sold thesis projects
to computer students, Abad said. See
*** Also: Congress hears about computer virus, see
*** And: European companies are still Love-sick, see
*** MP3.com pulls plug on disc service
SAN DIEGO (AP) - A legally disputed service that allows consumers to store popular songs
on the Internet site of a digital music company
was partially shut down Wednesday. The Internet site's operator, San
Diego-based MP3.com, disabled the service to prevent anyone from
storing music produced by major recording companies until a copyright
lawsuit is settled. A federal judge in New York ruled that earlier this month the service
infringed on the copyrights of the nation's major record companies. MP3.com is attempting
to negotiate a settlement with the recording companies and hopes to restore the service,
which the company says has about 500,000 subscribers. See
*** House extends Web tax moratorium
WASHINGTON (AP) - Pointing, clicking and surfing the Internet could
not be singled out for taxes through October 2006 under a bill rushed
through the House Wednesday, part of a broader Republican agenda
aimed at gaining favor with the high-tech industry and millions of
computer users. Critics ranging from most of the nation's governors
to traditional brick-and-mortar retailers said extending the moratorium on
Internet-specific taxes, such as taxes on access, ignores the more troublesome issue of
how state sales taxes should apply to e-commerce. But the House voted 352-75 to pass the
bill, part of a Republican "E-Contract 2000" agenda intended to underscore their
support for the high-tech sector, a prime campaign contribution battleground for both
parties this election year. Other priority issues include repealing the 102-year-old 3%
telephone excise tax, increasing visas for highly skilled foreign workers and granting
digital signatures the force of law. See
*** IBM launches new Web servers
NEW YORK (AP) - International Business Machines Corp. announced
Thursday it is shipping three new models of Web servers, the powerful
computers that send Web pages and other data over the Internet. One
of the new models is set to replace servers from rival Sun Microsystems Inc. in powering
the "phone book" of the Internet. IBM said the new M80 is the world's fastest
eight-processor Web server, capable of serving out more than 3,200 average Web pages per
second.
It also launched a cheaper six-processor Web server and a smaller server aimed at
e-business. The new additions to the RS/6000 line of
corporate computers have processors with copper wiring, making them
faster than chips wired with the usual aluminum, IBM said. The company pioneered the use
of copper wiring with the successful high-end S80 server. See
*** Computer virus hit federal agencies
WASHINGTON (AP) - The "Love Bug" computer virus struck at least 14 federal
agencies and even penetrated classified systems, proof the
government isn't doing enough to protect its computers from hackers,
a House subcommittee was told Wednesday. "Virtually all of the largest federal
agencies have significant computer security weaknesses that place critical federal
operations and assets at risk to computer-based attacks," said Keith Rhodes, director
of computer and information technology assessment at the General Accounting Office. Among
agencies the Love Bug virus struck were the Social Security Administration, the Energy
Department, the Central Intelligence Agency, the National Aeronautic and Space
Administration, the Immigration and Naturalization Service and the Defense Department,
Rhodes told the House Science technology subcommittee. See
*** UK plans cyber spy center
LONDON (AP) - To civil libertarians, it smacks of Big Brother.com.
The British government plans to set up a multimillion-dollar spy center capable of
tracking every e-mail and Internet hit in the country - a move it says will help fight
cybercrime, but which civil libertarians contend heralds the arrival of an Orwellian
state. The cyber-snooping base, which will bear the unassuming title of Government
Technical Assistance Center, reportedly will be housed within the fortress-like London
headquarters of the MI5 spy agency.
It will be established as part of the Regulation of Investigatory
Powers Bill, expected to become law this fall. "We regard it as an
outrageous piece of legislation," said Yaman Akdeniz, director of the
watchdog group Cyber-Rights and Cyber Liberties. See
-------------------------------------------------
*** Microsoft to rebut breakup plan
WASHINGTON (AP) - Microsoft is about to get its chance to rebut a
government's proposal to rip the company in two. Tomorrow, Microsoft will respond to the
proposal made last month by the Justice
Department and 17 state attorneys to split it into one company that sells the dominant
Windows operating system and another selling virtually everything else. The plan was
submitted to Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson, who found Microsoft to be a monopoly with
business practices in wide violation of antitrust law. The company said it would appeal
the ruling. The Justice Department official who championed the breakup vigorously defended
the plan Tuesday, the eve of the company's deadline to respond, as "the most
effective and efficient means of protecting and preserving competition." Joel Klein,
who heads the department's antitrust division, dismissed criticism against the breakup
proposal, saying similar arguments were made more than two decades ago in the breakup of
AT&T's national phone system. See
*** 'Love bug' suspect free for now
MANILA, Philippines (AP) - Investigators searching for the author of
the "ILOVEYOU" computer bug freed a suspect Tuesday, but said they
are decoding 10 names that might be linked to the worldwide virus
attack. The FBI got the names from Sky Internet, a Philippine Internet service provider,
said Federico Opinion, director of the Philippines' National Bureau of Investigation. The
names - apparently chat room or e-mail identifiers - could be pseudonyms for a single
person or several people, investigators said. They are believed to be connected to the
Philippines' AMA Computer College. An official at AMA, meanwhile, said the school has
discovered a password-stealing program written by a student that is similar to the
"ILOVEYOU" virus. See
*** High-tech visas may be increased
WASHINGTON (AP) - A consensus has emerged in Congress to increase the number of visas
given to foreigners with prized technical skills, such as computer programmers and
electrical engineers. Going through several competing measures Tuesday, the House
Judiciary Committee cobbled together a bill that would remove visa limits for the next
three years, a move favored by high-tech companies that say they
desperately need workers. "There is general agreement that the economy of this
country is best served by some sort of increase,"
said Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass. In contrast to earlier bills, the compromise would not
require federal regulations that industry officials worried would block them from hiring
any foreign workers.
The committee lacked a quorum for final approval of the bill, but an
expected vote Wednesday should send it to the House floor. See
*** Origin of eBay painting a mystery
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - An amateur art collector has offered $135,805 for an abstract
painting listed on eBay's online auction site. If it proves to be an original by the late
Richard Diebenkorn, it could be
a stunningly good investment. If not, Robert Keereweer will have
thrown his money away on a garage-sale knockoff originally offered
for 25 cents on a Web site where the mantra is "buyer beware."
Keereweer, a software executive who lives near Amsterdam, Netherlands, placed the highest
bid on the painting Monday and plans
to fly to the U.S. in a couple of days to complete the transaction.
See
*** Gates urges use of smart cards
LAS VEGAS (AP) - Microsoft Corp. chairman Bill Gates urged other
technology companies to forge ahead in adopting smart cards instead
of passwords as a way of ensuring security on the Internet. "The weakest link in
security is the fact that passwords are used," Gates said during his keynote speech
Tuesday at the NetWorld+Interop 2000 conference, a six-day computer networking event
attended by about 60,000 people. Customers who want to buy products, bank or pay bills
online usually have to choose a password when they register with the site. But Gates said
that system wasn't secure because thieves can call online companies and pose as customers
who forgot their passwords. Last year, the Federal Trade Commission received nearly 18,000
complaints of Internet consumer fraud, including allegations about online auctions and
sales of computer hardware and software.
See
*** Cisco earnings top expectations
SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) - Internet equipment provider Cisco Systems
Inc. continues to show strong quarterly gains as a string of acquisitions and internal
development helps meet red-hot demand for Web and data-routing services. For the three
months ending April 29, the San Jose, Calif.-based company reported net income of $662
million, or 9 cents per share, up from $636 million, or 9 cents per share, in the year-ago
period. The numbers include $488 million in research and development write-offs as well as
several other one-time items. Excluding those numbers, Cisco earned $1.03 billion, or 14
cents a share. As has been a pattern, Cisco's earnings Tuesday exceeded expectations by a
penny a share. Analysts surveyed by First Call/Thomson Financial had expected the company
to earn 13 cents a
share, excluding charges. See
-----------------------------------------------
*** Oracle unveils $199 Web device
DALLAS (AP) - Unbowed by the failure of a bare-bones computer five years ago, Oracle Corp.
chairman Larry Ellison unveiled a $199
Internet machine Monday targeted at the education and consumer
markets. Unlike a personal computer, the device lacks a hard drive.
Instead, users who connect it to the Internet will be able to check
e-mail and surf the Web. Ellison, helped by Colin Powell, former
chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, unveiled the machine before an
audience of students at a performing arts high school in Dallas.
Calling it "this amazing $199 computer," Ellison said the device "is
going to allow us to put a computer on every child's desk" by 2005.
Ellison said Oracle, the giant database software company based in
Redwood City, Calif., will donate more than 1,100 of the machines to
23 Dallas schools. See
*** Vodafone may bid $10 bln on Lycos
(Silicon.com) - Vodafone AirTouch is planning a $10 billion bid for
Internet portal, Lycos, according to reports on U.S. wires. Industry
watchers say the projected deal highlights an emerging trend in
online business with operators becoming increasingly interested in
joining forces with content production companies. For more, visit
-----------------------------------------------------
*** FBI probes e-mails to virus creator
MANILA, Philippines (AP) - U.S. government agents are going over logs of angry e-mail
messages sent by people victimized by the "ILOVEYOU" computer virus to its
creator, who used Philippine e-mail addresses, a Philippine Internet service provider said
Sunday. Jose Carlotta, chief operating officer at Access Net, said he gave six to seven
pages of e-mail logs to FBI agents Saturday. In Washington, the FBI's Michael Vatis, the
agency's lead investigator on computer viruses,
confirmed Sunday that the two countries are jointly investigating a
single suspect but said no arrests had been made. See
***
Also: Virus points to prevention needs, see
***
And: Gates: Viruses harder to protect, see
*** Report: Microsoft drafting remedy
WASHINGTON (AP) - Microsoft Corp. is drafting an alternative to the government's proposed
breakup of the company that would limit some business practices, such as giving computer
makers more flexibility to alter Windows software, The Washington Post reported. In Sunday
editions, the newspaper quoted sources close to the company as saying the proposal is
intended to show U.S. District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson that there is a way to
address the judge's verdict that
Microsoft violated antitrust law without breaking up the company The
Microsoft response is due Wednesday, but company lawyers are set to
seek more time for a full response to the Justice Department's
breakup proposal, the Post said. See
*** Tech magazine advertising soars
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Writing about unprofitable dot-com companies is shaping up as one of
the Internet economy's most prosperous industries. Even as Internet entrepreneurs fret
about a stock market meltdown, the crowded field of bulging magazines covering the sector
are reveling in a flood of advertising revenue from the very same
tech companies struggling to stay afloat. Over the past year, advertising in
technology-oriented magazines like Business 2.0, Red Herring, The Industry Standard,
Upside Today and Wired has soared.
Advertising pages are up sixfold at Business 2.0, Red Herring just
published a 630-page issue, including 350 pages of advertising, and
Upside recently held a party to celebrate a quadrupling of
advertising revenue. See
*** E-retailers try selling own line
NEW YORK (AP) - Private-label products have long been a staple of
traditional retailing but now many e-retailers, hoping to boost earnings and name
recognition, are trying them too. "We can offer something that we can't find the
competition doing at all or doing well, and get to improve our margins in the
meantime," said Julie Wainwright, chairwoman and chief executive of Pets.com, which
recently began selling private-label products on its Web site. With Wall Street growing
impatient about the huge losses cybershops are incurring, e-retailers are seeking new ways
to become profitable.
Traditional retailers have known for years that private-label brands
can become a significant part of their business. See
*** Race on for superfast Web access
NEW ORLEANS (AP) - Tired of the ticktock of their home computer clock trying to download a
large file or video clip, millions of people are
turning up the speed on their Web connection. Consumers are benefiting from competition
among cable, telephone, wireless and satellite companies offering Internet access that is
dozens of times quicker than today's dial-up modems. As cable executives meet this week in
New Orleans for their annual convention, they can take some credit for the race that has
won over consumers like Zach Hamm. A security consultant in Raleigh, N.C., Hamm traded in
his telephone connection - called an ISDN line - for Internet service delivered over his
cable systems.
See
*** Junked computers a toxic nightmare
PHILADELPHIA (AP) - With faster processors and sharper flat-panel
screens arriving regularly in homes and offices, a new breed of recyclers is developing
across the nation to handle the glut of outdated computers and monitors and the toxic
materials they contain.
"We started collecting electronic equipment in September. We now get
what works out to a couple of semi-loads a month," said Neil Peters-Michaud, chief
executive officer of Cascade Asset Management
LLC in Madison, Wis. "Once the floodgates open, the demand is
incredible." Personal computers are loaded with toxic materials as
dangerous to dispose of as the messy pile of paint cans and solvents
in the corner of the garage. See
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