Microsoft Corp announced last night that it has acquired RenderMorphics Ltd, the London-based multimedia technology firm famous for its Reality Lab C-based three-dimensional rendering library (CI No 2,588).
Siemens AG told the annual meeting it expects productivity to rise 7% this fiscal compared with 6% last: it still aims to raise its return on capital to 15% in the next three to five years from 9.4% last year;Siemens-Nixdorf Informationssysteme AG will show an operating profit in the current fiscal, the company said, but only before continuing large charges for restructuring; in the first four months of this year, Siemens Nixdorf saw incoming orders up 15% and sales up 11%; overall, sales in the four months to January 31 were up 8% at $17,483m, but orders rose only 1%; the company warns that firms will begin locking workers out soon after the IG Metall union begins strike action in Bavaria today, adding that as Bavaria’s largest private employer with 100,000 workers, the 6% pay demand would cost Siemens some $800m, which is equivalent to 10,000 to 15,000 jobs.
As well as pulling out of the bidding for Compagnie des Machines Bull SA (see front) – a move some see as leaving the French government short of buyers for a majority in the company – AT&T Corp has also pulled out of the bidding for SPT Telecom AS in the Czech Republic, saying it will act only as a potential service contractor; Koninklijke PTT Nederland NV has teamed up with Swiss Telecom PTT to compete in the Czech tender, and AT&T would provide technical support if they win.
Nynex Corp, Bell Atlantic Corp and Pacific Telesis Group Inc tapped top television executive Howard Stringer, president of the CBS Inc Broadcast Group, to head their new multimedia entertainment venture.
US West Inc has paid a reported $230m for a 20% stake in Binariang Sdn Bhd, which has been awarded the contract to develop and operate Malaysia’s first satellite, MEASAT-I.
Milpitas, California-based Mac OS licensee Power Computing Corp is to base its sales, marketing and operations in Austin, Texas while the Milpitas headquarters site keeps engineering and product management.
US Robotics Inc completed acquisition of Megahertz Holding Corp; a new US Robotics Corp is now the parent of both modem-making firms.
Frontier Corp – yes, we’d forgotten who they were too, but it’s the new name of Rochester Telephone Corp, Rochester, New York – and it has revised terms of its acquisition of long-distance operator WCT Communications Inc because the latter was unable to satisfy all the financial conditions in the original agreement: Frontier will now pay $79.8m in cash for all outstanding shares of WCT, which did $76m business in the six months to December 31, offers service in 45 states and has switches in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Dallas, Philadelphia, Atlanta and Seattle; its network will be integrated into that of Frontier Communications International, formerly RCI Long Distance.
Investor and Microsoft Corp co-founder Paul Allen is to raise some $12m with the sale of 200,000 of his remaining shares in Microsoft.
Researchers at Sandia National Laboratories and AT&T Corp’s Bell Laboratories reckon that by 2007, semiconductor fabricators will be able to get chip geometries down to 0.1 micron by using extreme ultraviolet light lithography: the partners aim to complete the research by 1996, develop a single working system by 1998 and create a manufacturable system by 2007 – but the technique could prove too expensive to be practicable, since it may cost $300m to $500m to bring to market, and a mini-synchrotron to generate X-rays for lithography costs about $25m; deep ultraviolet light is expected to be used for 0.25 micron parts, extreme ultraviolet rays require use highly precise chemically coated mirrors to focus the invisible light beams.
Yes, but why haven’t the things been built in to the operating system from day one so as to make it the obvious choice for all the company’s mainframe and
mid-range users? IBM Corp has announced three terminal emulation products for OS/2 and OS/2 Warp, each carrying a rather more than nominal price tag: they are Personal Communications AS/400 for OS/2; Personal Communications/3270 for OS/2; and Personal Communications AS/400 and 3270 for OS/2; you pay $475 for the first copy of 3270, $395 thereafter, $395 for the first AS/400 copy, $330 thereafter, and the combination costs $545, $455 for further copies; if you already have an emulator, you can upgrade from earlier IBM or competiting ones for prices ranging from $145 to $225, it said.
The feverish world of advanced software development clearly gets very personal and childish at times, and the Wall Street Journal has unearthed a row between Apple Computer Inc and Microsoft Corp in court documents relating to the anti-trust investigation of Microsoft in which Apple alleges that Microsoft threatened to withhold beta releases of Windows95 fromApple’s cross-platform development group – other Apple units had been given the Windows95 code but were not permitted to share it – in an attempt to bully Apple into withdrawing the lawsuits over QuickTime; the only serious allegation in the Apple filing appears to be the suggestion that in a meeting with Apple chief Michael Spindler, Microsoft’s Bill Gates issued a thinly veiled threat to stop developing software for the Macintosh if Apple continues to develop its OpenDoc rival to Microsoft’s Object Linking & Embedding system.
Our reaction to the Apple Computer Inc court documents about Microsoft Corp was that much of the content sounded like playground name-calling, and Dataquest Inc’s Karl Wong feels the same: Some people say the computer industry is maturing, but I think it is just going through puberty, he told the San Jose Mercury News – This stuff all sounds pretty juvenile – it’s like ‘Bill stole my cookies,’ he said.
Elektrowatt AG has got bored with Zurich banking software specialist Winter Partners AG, and so Dr Jrg Winter, co-founder and former chairman has bought the company back; the terms were not disclosed.
Symantec Corp plans to sell its products in China through Irvine, California-based CWS Associates Inc’s office in Peking: the Norton products will be the first to be localised and distributed, CWS will provide technical support for them.
So that’s all right then – a Los Angeles company, Sports Comm Inc, doing business as The Juice Line, proudly announces it is rolling with its O J Simpson pre-paid calling card, the one and only interactive long-distance calling card that O J has authorised, and warns that there is a counterfeit card out there being sold by a New Jersey company that has nothing to do with O J – it bears his mug shot and is in bad taste, O J gets nothing from that card, and Sports Comm is planning to sue the New Jersey company: its own card is signed by O J and comes with a letter of authenticity signed by O J, and O J is getting royalties from the cards, which sell for $20, have 20 minutes of calling time and O J’s voice greets you when you call and you can leave a message for O J for free before you make your call.
