ROUNDUPS
For the record 23 April
23-04-2002
by Paula Mythen
Agere Systems reports USD219m in losses, but beats its own guidance | GameCube consoles will sell for EUR199 in Europe
Agere Systems reported its financial results for the second quarter of fiscal 2002, ended 31 March, and stated that it would work closely with Lucent Technologies to complete its spin-off on 01 June. The company reported revenues of USD551 million, up USD14 million or 2.6 percent from the December quarter and better than the guidance provided by the company in January. Reported net loss for the March quarter was USD219 million or USD0.13 per share. Pro forma net loss was USD246 million or USD0.15 per share, an improvement of USD0.02 sequentially, exceeding guidance by USD0.02 per share.
Cape Technologies on Tuesday launched its latest product RoamBroker, a system that manages mobile billing settlement for inter-operator roaming, at Billing Systems 2002. The company also announced its first contract win for the new product with CMG Wireless Data Solutions.
Nintendo has set the retail price for its GameCube videogame consoles at EUR199 for the 03 May launch.
Shipments in the worldwide handheld device market declined by 12.1 percent year-on-year in the first quarter, and dropped sequentially by 25.4 percent to 3.25 million according to IDC. Palm remained the leading manufacturer even though worldwide unit shipments declined 23.5 percent year-on-year during the first quarter of 2002, and declined 22.3 percent sequentially. Palm claimed a 39.0 percent share in the worldwide handheld device market, up 1.6 percent from the fourth quarter of 2001. Compaq rose to the number-two position, with worldwide shipment volume growing 18 percent year-on-year. Compaq ended the first quarter with 10.1 percent share of the worldwide handheld device market.
Lastminute.com has formed a partnership with British Sky Broadcasting to sell its key products through the interactive television service, Sky Active. Expected to launch this autumn, the deal will extend Sky Active's line-up of retail and travel services, while providing a distribution platform for Lastminute.com.
Adobe Incorporated has announced a new wireless authoring module for Adobe GoLive 6.0 that lets designers and developers create and adapt visually Web content for Nokia mobile phones. Developed by Nokia and supporting the Symbian operating system, it is the first visual authoring application for Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) wireless technology.
Hutchison 3G has signed a EUR200 million deal with Siemens for the supply of UMTS technology in Austria. The agreement with Hutchison 3G Austria is for a minimum of five years and will involve Siemens Information and Communication Mobile Group (IC Mobile) supplying radio network technology with base stations from the second quarter of this year.
The European Commission has adopted a proposal for a Council Framework Decision on "Attacks against information systems". It addresses the new most significant forms of criminal activity against information systems, such as malicious attacks, viruses and denial of service attacks. This Framework Decision seeks to approximate criminal law across the EU to ensure that Europe's law enforcement and judicial authorities can take action against this new form of crime. It also aims to encourage and promote information security.
IBM has formed an agreement with Sage which comprises two parts: Sage Line 500 will be available for Linux on upgraded IBM data management software on Intel-based servers, including IBM eServer xSeries; in the second part of the agreement, Sage's business management application, Line 500, will be available as an integrated package on IBM's eServer iSeries range running Linux.
Caped Koala Studios has built a virtual world for kids, combining education and social networking 