ROUNDUPS
In the papers 02 May
02-05-2002
by Ralph Averbuch
Melissa virus creator gets 20 months in prison | Esat could quit the unprofitable consumer segment in Ireland
The Irish Independent reports that the go-ahead for a merger between Compaq and Hewlett-Packard may result in around 400 jobs going in Ireland. The paper says that the job loss forecast came after Walter Hewlett, the dissident HP shareholder, announced his acceptance of a US court ruling on the validity of the USD22 billion merger between Compaq and HP.
The paper also reports that British Telecom may quit the unprofitable home consumer market, leaving Eircom to dominate the market. According to the newspaper, when BT bought the Esat group from Denis O'Brien, then BT chairman Iain Vallance promised a "seamless" service between Northern Ireland and the Republic.
The Irish Independent says managers are more cautious today about growth prospects in the year ahead, based on a survey of chief executives of global companies. Sales are forecast to grow at an average of 7.5 percent. However, 25 percent of executives do not expect any growth at all, according to a regular survey carried out by the Irish Management Institute (IMI) and the newspaper.
The Irish Times reports that the UK put ITV Digital's television licence on the market on Wednesday as the company pulled the plug on its pay-to-view programmes to one million viewers and moved towards liquidation. The Independent Television Commission is now seeking applications for the licence with public broadcaster, the BBC, seen as a possible successor.
The paper also reports that senior management at NTL may be facing a new shareholder lawsuit as the cable operator develops a restructuring plan that will leave its current investors with watered-down stakes in the company. Stull, Stull & Brody is the latest US law firm to file a class action suit against NTL on behalf of such shareholders, claiming that the management gave misleading information.
The Guardian reports that the creator of the "Melissa" computer virus has been handed a 20-month prison sentence for causing more than USD80 million in damages by disrupting e-mail systems across the globe.
Caped Koala Studios has built a virtual world for kids, combining education and social networking 