ROUNDUPS
In the papers 16 April
16-04-2002
by Paula Mythen
Entrant telecoms in Ireland threaten to leave IBEC | Intel pays USD300 million to settle patent dispute with Intergraph Corporation
The Irish Times reports that several telecoms operators, including Nevada Tele.com and Esat Telecom, are considering leaving the employers' body IBEC over concerns that it favours dominant firms such as Eircom, Digifone and Vodafone in policy issues. The operators are concerned about attempts by IBEC to propose a series of amendments to the Communications Regulation Bill, which is set for a final reading in the Dail this Thursday. The Bill includes a range of penalty provisions including fines of up to 10 percent of a firm's turnover, if it breaches the terms of its licence and would also create a new commission to replace the Office of the Director of Telecommunications Regulation (ODTR).
The paper also reports that Intel has said it will pay USD300 million to settle claims by Intergraph Corporation that its Pentium line of microprocessors infringes on five of its patents. The company will now license the patents from Intergraph for an unspecified period. Intergraph has also agreed to transfer ownership of certain unrelated patents to Intel.
The same paper reports that the dispute over Hewlett-Packard's bid for Compaq Computer took a further twist on Monday when HP acknowledged two federal agencies were investigating whether it had improperly secured shareholder votes to win approval for the merger. The company said the SEC's San Francisco office had "informally" requested information about HP's "relationships and communications" with Deutsche Bank. Separately, the US attorney's office for the southern district of New York issued a subpoena on 10 April for documents related to votes cast by Deutsche Bank and Northern Trust.
The Irish Independent reports that NTL is putting the final touches to a massive debt restructuring, and a source close to the talks said shareholders may be able to buy part of the newly financed firm. A debt-for-shares swap, aimed at cutting USD17 billion of bond and loan debt, is expected to leave shareholders with less than five percent of the equity in what will be one of the world's largest corporate bond defaults, industry sources said.
The Financial Times reports that Philips, Europe's largest maker of consumer electronics, on Tuesday made a surprise return to the black, with an EUR9 million first-quarter net profit that beat analysts expectations. Among the unconsolidated businesses, a key turnaround came from LG Philips LCD, the company's screen joint venture, which turned a loss of EUR25 million last year into a profit of EUR37 million. The net profit of EUR9 million was compared with earnings of EUR93 million in the same period last year. Revenues for the three months to March 2002, were EUR7.6 billion, down slightly from the EUR8.2 billion recorded in the year-ago period.
Continuing the HP story, Deutsche Asset Management said on Monday it exercised its "independent judgement" when deciding to vote in favour of Hewlett-Packard's bid for Compaq Computer. In its first public statement on its role in HP's controversial Compaq transaction, the asset management firm said its decision to support the deal was based upon presentations made by HP's management and the opposition camp lead by Walter Hewlett, the dissident director trying to derail the deal.
The Wall Street Journal reports that Sprint Corp. said it earned USD140 million in the first quarter, compared with a year-earlier loss of USD76 million, as profit from its local and long-distance telecommunications business offset losses from its Sprint PCS wireless unit. The results were slightly improved this year because of a smaller loss from Sprint's wireless unit.
The same paper reports that Unisys Corp.'s net income fell 53 percent in the first quarter amid a 16 percent drop in revenue and a continued slump in orders worldwide. The company reported net income of USD32.7 million, or USD0.10 a share, down from net income of USD69.3 million, or USD0.22 a share, a year earlier. Unisys said the results met the high end of its earnings targets.
Caped Koala Studios has built a virtual world for kids, combining education and social networking 